Lindsay St. Hill was elected president of the Associated Students of DVC in a vote that also overwhelmingly favored candidates in her coalition, UAID, despite allegations of unfair involvement by the current ASDVC president.

St. Hill received 51.3 percent of the vote, while Young Jun Jang of the Make it Happen coalition captured 39.6 percent and Petra Muljadi of BIG, who was seldom seen campaigning, won the remaining 11.8 percent.

Out of the 10 positions up for grabs, members of the UAID coalition won seven of them. Two other candidates – Cynthia Larasanti and I Ting Cheng – won the race for vice president of legislative affairs and public relations respectively. They were endorsed by UAID, even though they belonged to the Make it Happen coalition.

Parliamentarian-elect Fiona Kumala of the BIG coalition was the only winning candidate with no political ties to UAID.

UAID’s win is likely to draw more criticism as there were already allegations that current ASDVC President Bundit Kertbundit was unfairly involved in the campaign.

According to the April 9 issue of The Inquirer, Kertbundit handpicked the ASDVC board members he wanted to head UAID, a coalition he started a year ago when he ran for office.

Kertbundit also endorsed and campaigned for the UAID coalition, but defended his involvement by saying it was an issue of free speech, according to the Inquirer story.

On April 7, the last day of voting, many candidates made their final appeals to the voters in the rain.

“I want to fix the parking permit prices and subsidize the costs for the students,” said Public Relations-elect I Ting Cheng, as she handed out flyers.

ASDVC President Kertbundit called the politicking “the biggest campaigning effort ever.”

“[The candidates] understand the strategy for reaching out to students,” he said 45 minutes before voting closed.

St. Hill’s mother, Kelli Treinen, came from San Diego to promote her daughter in the quad April 6-7, despite two bulging disks in her back and a painful foot condition.  She said St. Hill’s grandfather had been admitted into open-heart surgery at 3 p.m. that day.

“Lindsay’s putting up a good front,” she said.

Turnout was up 13.6 percent over the 2008 election, although many students admitted they went to the polls for the reward coupons offered by the ASDVC for free hotdogs and chips.

“The hot dogs were definitely a plus,” Erin Robinson said.

But she said she and her friend, Andrea Thompson, were voting because they were involved in high school leadership and wanted to voice their opinions.

Eric Van Dusen also voted, but was less involved in the process. When asked by a reporter to name the candidates for whom he had voted, he responded, “That’s a good question” before remembering it was the Make It Happen coalition.

Hee Jun, who ended up losing the minority affairs position, was one of many candidates toeing the yellow and black tape that marked off the closest they could approach the voting site.

He repeatedly shouted the candidate numbers of his coalition, Make It Happen, at the Student Union building.

Candidates stood by the tape line until heavy hail hit at 6:30 p.m. Voting closed at 6:45 p.m.