THE PRESIDENCY of the College of Education Student Council remains vacant, after student representatives chose not to elect a president in a special poll last March 8 after most Education students abstained in the college-wide elections.
Of 25 class presidents who participated in the special elections conducted by the Education Commission on Elections, 16 opted to abstain rather than vote for lone candidate Krishma Kishore, a sophomore majoring in Food Technology.
The special election for the council presidency was called by the Education Comelec after Juan Carlo de la Paz of Aklas-Sakto party, who ran unopposed in the college-wide polls, lost to the overwhelming number of abstentions. De la Paz obtained 528 votes while 727 abstained.
According to the Comelec, another special election will take place at the start of the next academic year. In the meantime, Internal Vice President-Elect Isaac Puyod, a first-year Special Education student, will serve as officer-in-charge.
Tie broken
The Faculty of Engineering, meanwhile, has finally elected a new student council president, almost a month after the presidential race resulted in a tie.
With a margin of 129 votes, Electronics Engineering student Nielsen Ignacio of RESPECT-LIT party won over Kyra Porciuncula of SIKLAB in a special election last March 6 and 7.
Ignacio obtained 1,026 votes, while Porciuncula, a third-year Civil Engineering student, got 897.
Both candidates got 1,790 votes in the student council elections last Feb 19 to 21.
Ignacio claimed that his edge was his service in the local student council, first as auditor when he was in second year and as assistant treasurer the following year.
“Nakita nila na may mga bagong proyekto akong naibigay noon kaya masasabi kong malakas ang tiwala nila na magagawa namin [‘yung] mga bago naming proyekto at plataporma [ngayon],” Ignacio said.
A total of 2,654 engineering students voted in the manual elections facilitated by the Engineering Comelec last March 6 to 7. Election officers said 143 students abstained and 588 votes were declared void.
Incumbent student council president Christine Rodriguez said the small turnout of voters—despite Engineering’s large population—was not new, citing the “apathy” of students.
“Ever since naman, mahirap talagang magpaboto sa Engineering. Sa dami ng population ng Engineering, mahirap talaga mawala ‘yung apathy. Lalo na ngayon na manual ‘yung elections,” Rodriguez said. “[The] good thing is, pasok pa rin siya sa minimum number of voters required to consider the elections valid.”
