THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters Commission on Elections (AB Comelec) has suspended the proclamation of three candidates as some of the next Artlets Student Council officials due to their ongoing temporary disqualification case over alleged campaign rule violations.
Shortly after the results of the election were announced on April 27, AB Comelec said the proclamation of Tindig-AB bets Justine Claire Ello (for president), Amaya Cabiling (for secretary), and Frances Ricci Tongco (for public relations officer) would be suspended “until further resolution” has been made.
AB Comelec announced their disqualification on April 26, a day before the proclamation of new student council officers in UST.
Ello, Cabiling and Tongo were barred from participating in this year’s ABSC poll following their third campaign violation, which was the failure to remove some of their electronic campaign materials on different social media platforms the day before the election.
Tindig-AB had previously violated two other implementing rules and regulations. The first involved sharing campaign materials on its official Facebook page during a designated non-campaign day last April 10, a holiday.
The act violated the no active campaign rule under the implementing rules and regulations number 12 and section three, which prohibits bets and political parties from “active posting, sharing or any kind of campaigning.”
Secondly, they allegedly violated section 7.2 of the implementing rules and regulations number 12 after they failed to submit the required uniform resource locators or URLs of the approved campaign materials posted on April 11.
The disqualified candidates have until April 29 to appeal the ruling to the UST Central Commission on Elections.
“Inaction within the given period is a waiver of such right and will render the ruling as final,” AB Comelec’s resolution read.
Only two candidates were elected as ABSC officials for the academic year 2024-2025.
Communication junior Kevin Christian Crisolo (559 votes) and Asian studies sophomore Naniela Nicole Lagunsad (928 votes) will assume their respective roles as the student council’s next internal vice president and treasurer for the academic year 2024-2025.
Ello drew 693 votes, outmatching independent candidates Gabriel Emmanuel Gabrillo (320 votes) and Raymond Janfred Quinto (147 votes).
Cabiling obtained 881 votes, while Tongco had 921 votes.
A total of 1,352 Artlets students casted their votes for this year’s ABSC election.F
