The Youth and Their Right to Suffrage

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the knowledge, awareness and attitude of the registered Benguet State University students towards the 2016 national and barangay elections. Specifically, it aimed to determine the knowledge and awareness level of the respondents about the upcoming 2016 elections, the attitudes of the respondents towards the 2016 elections and to identify the problems encountered and suggestions of the respondents during election. The study was conducted from January to February 2016 and survey questionnaire was used to gather information from the 110 respondents. The respondents are very well knowledgeable and aware on the 2016 national and barangay elections with print media as their source of information. With the 110 respondents, almost all of the respondents except five are going to vote on the upcoming 2016 elections. The respondents believe that it is their right to vote and their family are the one who influence them in voting. The problems identified during the electoral procedures dealt in three processes namely pre-election, election and post-election period. In the pre-election period the primary problem they encountered is the lack of information dissemination regarding intelligent voting while the perceived problem during the election period were the difficulty of locating names at the polling place and disruptive poll watchers. Lastly, for the post-election period, the main problem they encountered was the increasing claims of cheating in counting ballots. Most of the respondents suggest that the government should enhance the technology that will be use during the election to secure the votes and to have a faster election. Some also suggest that the government should educate the community about intelligent voting, widen information dissemination, combat vote buying and be stricter in the election guidelines and rules. Also, most of the respondents suggest that government should widen information dissemination on intelligent voting and conduct seminars, orientations and activities that will inform the youth about their right of suffrage. It is therefore recommended that extensive study on the helpful source of information on election or related activity be conducted and its differences in terms of their age, education level and political party. Also, COMELEC may consider the suggestions of the respondents in the study like conducting seminars on schools to further inform students about election and suggestions noted in the study may be of use by several sectors in the government specially the COMELEC to improve the election system of our country and to encourage more youth to register.