by Erle Filbert Mendoza
“Kami ang iyong gabay, inyong ilaw. Kami ang Tanglaw,” the tagline of Tanglaw party as they ruled the 2013 iVote Freshmen Elections, July 6.
After a lull of two years, the Tanglaw party-list took over the Central College Student Council (CCSC) with the highest number of candidates elected, a total of ten elected members against Lipad party-list’s eight. 84% of student voters (429 out of 504) elected representatives for SDCA’s 15 different programs. This made a difference of 3.4% compared with last year’s 80.5%.
“The manual counting of votes is preferred because when the system bogs down, wala tayong backup,” said Mr. Christian Jeff Torrento, former president of the CCSC, as he made a speech before starting the counting of ballots.
As the counting ended and turned to the Tanglaw party-list’s favor, Ms. Babylei Bello, CCSC president, spoke about the results, saying, “May nanalo, may natatalo.” The iVote Freshmen Elections is the selection of officers for SDCA’s CCSC, participated by students taking the National Service Training Program (NSTP).
Meeting de Avance
“Labanan ng green at dilaw.” remarked by Mr. Torrento, during the Meeting de Avance held at the Doña Dominga A. Andaman Hall.
The Tanglaw party-list first bounced its platforms with agenda such as locks and hand sanitizers for comfort rooms, printing services, more water dispensers and wall clocks per room.
The Lipad party-list’s agenda was almost identical to their counterpart, but added hand dryers, toilet papers, and hooks for bags inside the comfort rooms and improvement of the gym ventilation system. An open forum enabled the attending students to address their questions about the candidates which concluded the event.
Room-to-room Campaign
Both party-lists presented their candidates during a series of room-to-room campaigns before the election. They both opened booths at the main lobby, with different attractions to entice voters and win votes. Both party-lists presented their agenda for the CCSC and plans for their positions as possible members of the student government. Cherrelyn Bohawe and Carla Mae Zamora (Tanglaw), along with Kimverly Inocentes and Arron Haddassa Loremia (Lipad) served as campaign managers.
