DESPITE A successful turnout for this year’s freshman polls, complaints on the lack of information dissemination and faulty record keeping plagued this year’s freshman and special elections.

With regard to the turnout, Ateneo Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Ray Lacsamana said that the freshmen this year showed great eagerness in voting. In contrast, he said the upperclassmen barely knew of the special elections being held simultaneously last August 3 to 5.

Meanwhile, not one candidate of the special elections reached the 50%+1 quota required to win their positions, with some missing the win by a single vote.

Alvin Yllana of the Alliance of Student Leaders also commended their freshmen candidates. “They were very energetic,” he said. “I was surprised that they had that enthusiasm. It was as if they had waited for this election for a long time.”

By the second day of elections, Comelec posted on its Facebook page that 48.97% of the voting population had already cast their votes, with all positions—except for the special election posts—already reaching the quota. “It was a good indication,” Lacsamana said.

Upperclassmen elections too

During the lead-up to and on the actual elections, complaints regarding poll officers, campaign paraphernalia and database errors filled Comelec’s Facebook page.

The complainants said that the upperclassmen were not allowed to vote, as certain poll officers were apparently unaware of the special elections.

“I went to vote and they said I wasn’t allowed to [because] I’m a second year [student],” sophomore Samantha Co wrote on the page. “However, [School of Humanities (SOH)] sophomores have special elections for our [Central Board (CB) Representative]. I had to tell the member that there [were] special elections for my case and was therefore allowed to vote.”

She added that the same thing had also happened to her blockmate, who left the polling station without voting.

“This is very unfair for SOH sophomores who wanted to vote but were unable to because of [Comelec’s] inconsistencies. It is also unfair for the SOH second year CB candidate running,” Co added.

But according to Comelec Commissioner Margaux Tan, all poll officers underwent the necessary training. “We repeatedly reminded them that it was both freshmen and special elections,” she said.

Lacsamana said Comelec members who failed to attend the trainings were not allowed to become poll officers.

But Lacsamana said that even if the poll officers initially refused to allow them to vote, the voters should have insisted and raised their concerns with Comelec itself. He added that a lot of complaints “were not directed towards [Comelec]” when they should have been.

Nevertheless, he said that they are “trying to find leads” on the poll officers alluded to in the complaints, and added that they will take the appropriate actions to address the problem.

Other complaints

Another issue raised was the missing names and ID numbers of voters in Comelec’s database. Tan however said their database came “straight from the registrar,” and added that the only inputs they encoded were the passwords used by the voters.

Meanwhile, senior James Roman posted in the Sanggu Bantay Halalan group to complain about a poll officer who did not know the policy against campaign paraphernalia during the election period. Roman was asking the poll officer to take down the posters, to which the officer replied, “Bawal ba? (Is it not allowed?)”

“We still allow posters to be displayed, as long as that they are not near the vicinity of the voting polls,” Tan explained.

However, Roman also included a photo in his post, showing that the poster was directly in front of the polling station located at Gonzaga.

Info dissemination woes

Freshman Crissean Agay commended the Sanggunian and the Comelec for promoting the elections to the students. “I saw their posts on Facebook, so I think the freshman elections were well publicized.”

However, a good number of students still remained unaware of both the freshmen and special elections.

“I wasn’t aware that there were special elections being held and that we have candidates to vote for the missing positions,” sophomore Ben Campos said.

Work in progress

Lacsamana said that the Comelec was more responsive this year, attributing this to fewer internal conflicts as compared to previous years.

AJ Elicaño, SOH Junior CB Rep from Partido IsaBuhay IsaGawa – Agila commended Comelec for their improved performance. “While I do honestly think that Comelec, for the most part, performed better here than in the last General Elections, I think there is still much room for improvement, particularly for the Special Elections,” he said.

Lacsamana added that the poll body is continuously improving their performance. Next on the agenda is to evaluate the electoral code and fix the commission’s internal structure. “We’re still in the works. As for the loopholes, we’re still trying our best to avoid [them],” he said.

“We might not be visible off season, but [rest assured that] we’re still going to work,” he added.