Ebrahim Osman-Mowafy running for the #Drive slate has been elected Union President for Michaelmas Term 2024 with 389 first preferences. The election was a change of pace for Union politics, with three slates competing for each position compared to the last two terms, which had just one slate running.
The count took over 19 hours, starting at 9pm on Friday and continuing until 4pm on Saturday. The length of the count was attributed to the number of candidates running in the election, with 40 candidates running for Secretary’s committee.
Collins received 397 first preferences compared to Osman-Mowafy’s 389, but because of the single transferable vote system, Osman-Mowafy ultimately won.
New rules heavily restricting online campaigning also came into effect this term with the aim of minimising frustration with social media hacking. The restrictions meant that candidates were only allowed to post their manifestos on public feeds, but these regulations did not apply to private messaging.
Aryan Dhanwani was elected Librarian with 430 first preferences, running for the #Motion slate.
Anita Okunde was elected Treasurer with 420 first preferences, running for the #Drive slate.
Robert McGlone was elected Secretary with 409 first preferences running for the #Motion slate.
The following candidates for Standing Committee positions were elected, in ascending order: Shermar Pryce, Moosa Harraj, Danyal Admani, James MacKenzie, Hugo Roma-Wilson and Rachel Haddad Moskalenko. As the candidate to be elected with the most first preferences, Haddad Moskalenko will probably be the Secretary in Trinity 2024. This is due to the shake-up in the Union following the Appellate Board’s decision for next term’s leadership. Runner-up Sidd Nagrath will likely be on Standing Committee as a result. The exact line of succession is, however, yet to be announced by the Appellate Board.
The Returning Officers were not able to finish counting the votes for Secretary’s Committee, saying that they were “unable to return a true result for the Secretary’s Committee within this timeframe.” As a result, counting was adjourned to begin at 11am on Sunday.
Counting for Secretary’s committee was concluded at 2pm on Monday. The following candidates were elected, with number of votes in ascending order: Ammar Ansari, George Abaraonye, Prajwal Pandey, Vee Kumar, Raza Nazar, Jake Peto, Devon Darley, Yashas Ramakrishnan, Zizheng (Tom) Wang, Zarin Fariha, Ben Murphy.
This term’s election saw 1158 valid votes cast, a significant increase from the 987 cast in MT23 and 590 in TT23.
