LAKAS ng Diwang Tomasino (Lakasdiwa) standard bearer Miyuki Morishita of the College of Education is the next president of the Central Student Council (CSC), beating Speech and Language Pathology major Raymond Angelo Gonzales of the Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC) in a hotly contested election.
But the ruling LTC won four out of six CSC posts for Academic Year 2013-2014—vice president, secretary, auditor, and public relations officer. Third party Alyansa ng Kristiyanong Lakas (Aklas), back in the campus scene after a two-year hiatus, won the post of CSC treasurer.
Morishita, a third-year secondary education major and the incumbent secretary of the Education Student Council, as well as other winning candidates were proclaimed last Feb. 16 by the UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec). Morishita got 12,398 votes, 1,589 votes higher than 10,809 votes obtained by Gonzales, incumbent vice president of the CSC.
The next CSC vice president is Psychology junior Romulo Gabriel Kintanar of LTC who won a landslide victory. Kintanar got 14,294 votes, double the 7,099 votes of Lakasdiwa’s Carl Vincent Palapal, an Architecture senior.
Pharmacy junior Ina Marie Angela Vergara of LTC is the next CSC secretary, getting 13,091 votes, also double that of her LTC rival, Arts and Letters junior Katerina Ismail, who got 6,511. Accountancy junior Ruzelle Ann Escabusa of Aklas got 3,900 votes.
The lone winner from Aklas, Engineering senior Julius Augustus Apacible, is the next CSC treasurer. He got 8,553 votes, beating LTC’s Ace Dominic Quebal of Artlets who got 7,884. Lakasdiwa’s John Joshua Canasa of Accountancy obtained 6,627 votes.
Travel management sophomore Christine Claire Agra of LTC is the next CSC auditor, winning 9,782 votes. Marketing Management sophomore John Paul Gozun of Lakasdiwa got 7,979 votes while Fine Arts junior Ivy Clarice Cruz of Aklas obtained 4,272 votes.
For the position of public relations officer, LTC’s Dante Sebastian, an Information Systems freshman, won with 11,146 votes, beating Lakasdiwa bet and Medical Technology sophomore Christelle Primaleon’s 8,305. Pharmacy freshman Angelo Christian de Guzman of Aklas got 4,164 votes.
The Central Comelec partnered with the Varsitarian anew for this year’s Botomasino voter-education drive. This year, 26,768 Thomasians voted in the CSC polls.
Election officials implemented changes in the voting scheme, separating the electronic balloting for the CSC and local student council polls to make canvassing of votes easier.
Also this year, no college experienced failure of elections. Last year, the Conservatory of Music failed to muster the required 25-percent voter turnout. Reden D. Madrid and Bernadette D. Nicolas
