Central Judiciary Board orders Central COMELEC to junk abstain votes
by Philip Jamilla
The Central Commission on Elections (COMELEC) released a statement earlier today, July 24, regretting the resolution of the Central Judiciary Board on the interpretation of abstentions in the student council polls.
In the resolution dated June 28, the Board has ordered the Central COMELEC to proclaim candidates that obtained the highest number of votes as winners of the polls.
In their statement, the Central COMELEC said they “had high hopes” that the Board “would acknowledge the appeal on the dissatisfying political state of the university the students voted to change.”
Nonetheless, the Board asserted that the Central COMELEC “erred in construing abstention as rejection by the student body.”
“[The Central COMELEC] cannot speculate on the voter’s intention and cannot rightfully assume the role of mind readers,” the resolution stated.
The Board contested that the Central COMELEC violated Section 5, Article X of the UST Student’s Election Code (USEC) of 2011 “by including ‘abstain’ in the ballot as if it is a name of candidate.”
USEC states in Section 5, Article X that the ballot shall contain (a) the printed names of candidates, position and party; (b) a printed box before their names, (c) serial number of the ballot and (d) instructions.
There is no mention of including an ‘abstain’ option in the ballot.
The petition was filed by Steven Grecia of Lakas Tomasino Coalition and independent candidate Daniela Frigillana, where they contended that abstentions should not be counted as votes.
Grecia, the lone presidential candidate for the Central Student Council (CSC) polls, lost to abstain, which gained 15,803 votes.
Other than the presidency, the CSC posts for vice president, treasurer, and auditor are also left vacant due to abstentions.
Independent candidates Therese Gorospe and Francis Santos won the posts for secretary and public relations officer, respectively.
Following the Board resolution, Steven Grecia, Gabriela Sepulchre, Daveson Nieto, and Richard Javier will take the posts of president, vice president, treasurer and auditor, respectively, which they lost to abstain votes.
All four candidates are from Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC).
Meanwhile, Frigillana, vice president-internal candidate for the Faculty of Arts and Letters Student Council (ABSC) elections, defeated Grand Alliance for Progress’ Daverick Pacumio and Dekada’s Lawrence Gutierrez with 604 votes.
However, she lost the post to a total of 678 abstain votes. Other positions won by the abstain vote were the posts for secretary and auditor.
In a Twitter post last May 29, incoming ABSC President Reymark Simbulan warned of the Board’s decision to junk the abstain votes.
“The decision would most probably favour the candidates with the most number of votes,” Simbulan said. “[It] basically signals the death of democracy in UST.”
The Central Judiciary Board is composed of Canon Law Student Council President Glen Mar Gambo, outgoing CSC President Janela Love Nartates, University Legal Counsel Alfonso Versoza, Legal Coordinator Elgin Michael Perez, and Office for Student Affairs Director Arlene Calara.
Nartates, also from LTC, was the lone dissenter in the resolution.
According to The Flame, the AB COMELEC is also set to release a resolution regarding the Board’s decision within the week.
UPDATE (July 24, 10:20 p.m.) Central COMELEC just released a copy of the counter appeal they filed last June 7.
In the letter addressed to the Central Judiciary Board, they argued that abstain “should be construed in accordance with its common usage, i.e., that the voters who abstained simply chose not to vote.”
“The reason behind need not be ascertained,” the letter stated.
The Central COMELEC cited cases in local polls such as those in the Faculty of Civil Law Student Council last year, where positions won by the abstain vote were declared vacant and then filled through a special election.
“Against this practice, no candidate, political party or student ever protested,” the Central COMELEC said.
Furthermore, they asserted that “to proclaim the candidate who received the highest number of votes while disregarding the vast number of votes garnered by the option, ‘ABSTAIN,’ will run counter to the true will of the electorate.”
UPDATE (July 25, 3:27 p.m.) The Facebook page rating of the CSC had drastically dropped to 1.7 out of 5 stars.
Numerous users have downvoted the page in protest of the Central Judiciary Board’s resolution junking the abstentions in the recent student council polls. They also left the page with scathing reviews.
“[They are] bogus student leaders with no mandate from the majority of the student body,” read the review of former TomasinoWeb Editor-in-Chief Xave Gregorio.
“It is best for them to refuse to be proclaimed or to resign immediately after their proclamation,” he continued.
Former UST Red Cross Youth Council President Mikhail Gonzales urged the candidates to “accept defeat gracefully or face a term representing nobody.”
Gonzales stated further “The more you force yourselves into office, the more we’d resist and the longer it will take for the right student-leaders to be chosen.”
As of press time, the said candidates and LTC is yet to release any official statement regarding the resolution.
This is a developing story. The story is being updated in real time.
