PLM COMELEC logs 30.26 percent mock elections voter turnout, tackles voting system issues ahead of Election Day

The PLM Student Commission on Elections (COMELEC) reported a 30.26 percent voter turnout for the 2024 mock elections, with 4,274 students out of 14,123 eligible voters casting their votes through the new electronic voting procedure, May 2.

The Commission created 67 clusters to cater all 14 colleges of the University, kicking off its electoral run-through for the upcoming Supreme Student Council (SSC) and College Student Council (CSC) elections through utilizing the Assignments tab in Microsoft Teams to notify students that they may access the election ballot.

“This year’s mock elections has allowed the commission to obtain 30.26% or 4,274 students to try out the system to be used on Election Day. The percentage is almost double of last year’s mock elections,” PLM COMELEC report stated.

Eight out of the 14 colleges in the University declared a successful election in accordance with Article I, Section 10 of the PLM Omnibus Election Code of 2019, logging in a voter turnout of more than 25% of their respective voting population.

However, the College of Architecture and Sustainable Built Environments (CASBE), College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), College of Law (CL), College of Medicine (CM), College of Nursing (CN), and College of Physical Therapy (CPT) were remarked with “failure of election,” recording an overall electoral turnout of less than 25% their respective voting population.

PLM COMELEC further noted that out of the nine colleges which had candidates for the upcoming elections, CN, CASBE, CHASS, CL, and CPT have “failed to reach the threshold for the college council election to be considered successful.”

Meanwhile, PLM COMELEC has highlighted “mostly technical and isolated” issues during the mock elections, which included some students receiving the mock election ballots ten minutes after its scheduled start and some students having difficulties accessing the Assignments tab in Microsoft Teams.

In addition, some students also failed to be added to their respective cluster precincts due to either their names not being listed on the Office of the University Registrar (OUR) Masterlist or malfunctioning PLM email addresses. However, the commission assured that the students concerned will be added to their respective cluster precincts a week before the election day.

“The Commission believes that the voting system is cleared and can be used for the upcoming elections along with the adjustments necessary to settle any isolated technical problems,” PLM COMELEC added, ensuring that the issues mentioned will be resolved before Election Day.

In order to deem the polls successful, the Commission expects at least 25% of the 14,123 eligible voters to participate in the official elections to be held on May 21, with the campaign period of the candidates beginning May 7 until May 16. Dates for HARAPAN 2024 will be on May 16 (Thursday) for the CSC and May 20 (Monday) for the SSC.

PLM COMELEC also assures consistent dissemination of information regarding the events during the campaign and election period through their social media platforms.