Lights were up in Venue for Results Night on the 7th of March 2024. All of our candidates sat waiting anxiously for their results of their incredibly hard work campaigning all over campus – some even grabbed a pint to calm the nerves!
Before we begin, lets recap on how the voting system works – I even have to remind myself sometimes! The Newcastle University Student's Union (NUSU) uses a single transferable vote system which means that when we all voted, we ranked our top candidates. If your top candidate does not meet the threshold to move to the next round, your vote transfers to your second ranked candidate. Each position all had the option to Re-Open Nominations (RON).
Hosted by our current Union President, Shah Yaseen Ali, the night began, and first we would find out the Liberation Officer and Chair results. Our new Chair of Council will be Seoyeon Choi, who beat competitor Vignesh Venkatraman, 365 votes to 189. The role of Chair of Scrutiny was run by Thomas Adamson, who won this position in a landslide against RON.
Next was the Liberation officers. Much like the Chair positions, these roles are voluntary, unpaid positions as part of NUSU. Led by students, they will work with both their colleagues and university to help improve the student experience. First up was the winner of Ethnic Diversity Officer. Jadenn Sivakumar beat Bee Balfourth 357 votes to 266 for this position – did you see Jadenn campaigning in the dinosaur costume?
Our new Disability Officer will be Rhys Elson, who was the only candidate campaigning for this position gaining 570 votes. Another position with the one candidate was for Marginalised Genders Officer, won by Paulo Crisanti. And finally, a new position to NUSU, introduced by current Welfare and Equality Officer, Lucy Leeds, was the Working Class Students’ Officer. Again, there was only one candidate running for this position, Charlie-Ann Ditchburn, who won with 592 votes.
After a little break from the evening’s festivities, it was now time to announce the Sabbatical Officers. These 7 positions are paid jobs as part of NUSU. They will work closely with students, NUSU and the university to bring all three together to create a well-rounded experience for students.
First up was the role for Activities Officer. As our current officer, Alex Theodosiou was unable to attend, this role was presented by Lucy Leeds. As the only candidate, Swati Subramaniam needed to reach the required votes of 539 and smashed that limit, winning with 888 votes! In her acceptance speech she quipped about the “tough competition”!
Next up was Athletic Union Officer, presented by current officer, Kimiko Cheng. After a tough campaign run between candidates Jack Schofield and Alex Duggan, Alex won with 1,126 votes beating Jack’s 648 votes. Alex thanked her campaign’s team along with the Women’s Rugby for all their support.
Now it was time for the Student Media Officer (SMO). Announced by our current SMO, and Editor-in-Chief here at The Courier, Gabbi de Boer declared Lucy Bower the winner! The initial required votes threshold was 695 votes, which no candidate reached. As with the voting system, we go to round 2, which means round 1 saw Jess McKeown, Harshvardhan Rathore and RON eliminated. This meant that the required votes now went down to 594 which Lucy exceeded, with 623 votes, beating Sam Norman's 566 final votes. Heading to the stage, Lucy thanked the student media team, including her fellow candidates for their support.
Next was for the position of Education Officer, presented by current officer, Lulu Cheng. The four candidates for this position were Jasmine Banks, Jonathon Lee, Devika Bhave and Alina Ghazal, none of whom reached the original voting threshold of 834.50. This meant, much like the campaign for SMO, we go to round 2, which meant Jasmine and Jonathon led the race, now needing to reach 727 votes to win. Jasmine managed to best Jonathon 757 votes to his 697, showing yet again another tight race.
An even tighter race was that for Post-Graduate Officer, presented by current Officer, Chirag Kumar. Four candidates were running for this position: Saier Huang, Shruti Sharma, Linming Sun, Rev. Deacon Gabra Agziaabhir Jr., and Akash “Sky” Bandal. With the tightest results of the whole elections campaign, there were 4 rounds of elimination before a candidate reached the votes threshold. Finally, Linming Sun won with 737. As she reached the stage, her cheered and applauded in support!
The race for Welfare and Equality Officer saw a uniquely close race, following a RON campaign launched on social media. Current officer Lucy Leeds presented the awards, and after two rounds of voting RON led the race. However, in the final round, Hisham Salamathullah managed to gain the required votes in order to cross the threshold and be elected Welfare and Equality Officer.
Finally, we have the position of Union President, which brought our current President, Yaseen, back to the stage in order to present. Following weeks of passionate campaigning. it was Leo David who beat fellow candidate Atika Bawari with 1138 votes to their 534.
So, there you have it! Your team for the 2024/25 academic year! The elections hosted a variety of passionate candidates all advocating for the student body, and those who were successful now get to go put those plans into place! Anyone wishing to recap results night (or any of the Candidate's Spotlights) can watch through the NUTV streams available on YouTube.