School surveys show growing support for youth representation in Congress
Kabataan Partylist tops UST, UE mock polls
http://www.varsitarian.com/details.asp?id=3056&s=3&sec=news
The Kabataan Partylist topped recently concluded student surveys on partylist preferences in the University Santo Tomas and University of the East.
The mock polls were conducted by The Varistarian and The Dawn, official student publications of UST and UE, respectively.
The Varsitarian conducted the surveys on March and April, with the two mock polls roughly showing the same results. The survey had 1,265 respondents from UST’s 11 colleges with a 2.76 per cent margin of error.
In the survey, Kabataan Partylist got a commanding lead of 22.22 percent, with Buhay Partylist placing second with 13.89 percent.
Other partylist choices included Gabriela, 11.1 percent; ABAKADA Guro, 5.6 percent; Bayan Muna, 5.6 percent; and Senior Citizens, Lypad, Akbayan, Kasapi, A Teacher and Anakpawis got 2.8 percent.
“These surveys only show the growing support among students, youth and even the academe for youth representation in Congress,” Kabataan Partylist President and First Nominee Raymond Palatino said.
“There has not been a youth sectoral representative in the past three Congresses since the first partylist elections in 1998. The last time we had a youth representative in Congress was during the Philippine Assembly time more than fifty years ago when Wenceslao Vinzons and Arturo Tolentino’s Young Philippines won seats in Congress.”
Palatino however said the massive disenfranchisement of many potential, first time voters could pose a big hindrance to securing seats for the youth partylist.
“Many first time voters failed to register last year out of confusion and discouragement brought about by the No-El (No Election) scenario being propagated by Charter Change advocates and the government.”
“The youth can still participate in this elections though, whether a registered voter or not. The upcoming elections needs the biggest number of dedicated election volunteers who will guard the people’s votes. We can actively campaign for candidates or political parties and educate our relatives and our community of the electoral process and give guidelines on how to choose the country’s next set of leaders.”
“There are countless ways by which the youth can participate in this elections even if they are not registered voters. Now more than ever is the time for the youth to be involved.”
Kabataan Partylist had also emerged on the top spot in university belt-wide mock polls on partylist preferences last month.