Special elections to fill abstention-induced vacancies
AFTER the massive abstentions in the central student council elections, local student councils were not spared from the same fate.
The Institute of Information and Computing Science (IICS) and the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) will hold special elections to fill in the posts of secretary, treasurer, and public relations officer, and vice president internal, secretary, and auditor, respectively.
UST student’s election code of 2011 states that “abstain” should not be included in the ballots and that “all permanent vacancies in the executive board shall be filled by special elections.”
Isabela Gudio, secretary to the executive of AB Comelec, explained that the person with the highest number of votes is proclaimed as winner, if there are two or more candidates running for a position.
“In case there is only one candidate running for a position, AB constitution provides that a simple majority shall be observed,” she said in an online interview with The Spiral Journal.
IICS Comelec chairperson Agatha Marie Esquillo told The Spiral Journal in an online interview that “abstain” should not be included in the ballots since it is not stated in the constitution.
Esquillo said IICS will follow its own constitution since it has been clarified by the president of the central comelec that local student councils will not be mandated to follow the Central Judiciary Board (CJB)’s ruling.
“[Ang presidente ng] Central Comelec, […] na rin yung mismong nag-clarify after ng proclamation na the local units would not need to follow the CJB ruling. Instead, we have to follow what's indicated sa constitution of our local unit,” Esquillo said.
IICS constitution states that the candidates in the IICS student council election with the highest votes shall be proclaimed winners. A candidate without opposition must only get a simple majority of the total turn-out voters to be proclaimed winner.
The Faculty of Arts and Letters is reported to hold special elections on Sept. 14 to 16.