Meet your new SU: 2025 General Election results announced

By Nazeefa Ahmed, Vama Saini, Jill Reeves, Anna Maxwell, Ansharah Shakil, March 6 2025—

Candidates and students were present for the Students’ Union (SU) general election results that were announced today in the South Courtyard of MacEwan Hall. 

Students enrolled in the Winter 2025 semester voted for their top candidates from March 4–6. Students were able to vote or abstain for executive positions, their respective faculty representatives, Board of Governors (BoG) and Senate representatives. Students were also given the option to vote “yes” or “no” for uncontested candidates. 

In total, 3341 students voted in the general election, which is an 11 per cent voter turnout.  

Executives 

This year, the academic and internal positions were uncontested and the presidential and external executive positions were contested. As for faculty representatives, only the Faculty of Arts representative, Cumming School of Medicine Faculty representative, Faculty of Science representative, Schulich School of Engineering Faculty representative and the Haskayne School of Business Faculty Representative were contested. BoG remained uncontested but the Senate positions were contested. 

Successful candidates provided a statement to the Gauntlet on their win and what they’re excited to accomplish for students in their upcoming term. 

Naomie Bakana will serve as the next SU President with 53.7 per cent of the vote. 

“First and foremost, thank God that I was able to be here. My friends who supported me, I couldn’t be here without them. Even Matthew was a great competitor to run against. He really helped me and challenged me throughout the election, so I really appreciate that and I wish him all the best. And I’m just so excited to be the first Black woman to be SU President! I’m looking forward to working together with my team, continuing the great work that SU is already doing and doing even more,” said Bakana. 

Uncontested candidate Gabriela Dziegielewska will serve as the next Vice-President Academic with 88.2 per cent of the vote.

“I’m very excited. It was an uncontested race so it’s not as stressful [for me] as it was for everybody else. But I’m very happy and excited for the next year. I hope we can make things happen,” said Dziegielewska. 

Uncontested candidate Lorraine Ndovi will serve in the new Vice-President Internal role — a merger of the Vice-President Student Life role and the Vice-President Operations and Finance role — with 86.2 per cent of the vote. 

“I would just like to say thank you so much. I’m going to do my very best to represent students. I hope we have a great term. Just thank you so much,” said Ndovi.

Julia Law will serve as Vice-President External after winning with 57.4 per cent of the vote. 

“I am so excited. This has been on my mind since November, and now having it all come to an end, it’s just so exciting. I’m looking forward to everything!” said Law. 

Faculty representatives

Malia Jolly, Simchah Atanda, Mahad Rzain and Aitazaz Shah, will serve as the next Faculty of Arts representatives, with Jolly getting the most votes at 18.3 per cent. 

Hannah Kim and Nikhil Srivalsan will serve as the next Cumming School of Medicine Faculty representatives, with Kim getting the most votes at 42.2 per cent. 

Uncontested candidate Amanat Panech will serve as the next Faculty of Kinesiology representative with 91.9 per cent of the vote. Similarly, Faisal Baghazal will serve as the next Faculty of Law representative after running uncontested and receiving 78.3 per cent of the vote. 

Emil Rasmussen, Haris Naveed and Abdu Negmeldin will serve as the next Faculty of Science representatives, with Rasmussen receiving the most votes at 26.2 per cent. 

The next Haskayne School of Business Faculty representatives will be Joseph Szasz and Griffin Stewart, with 36.3 per cent and 27.4 per cent of the vote, respectively. 

Matthew Moreau will serve as the first School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Faculty representative after receiving 97.1 per cent of the vote. 

Emmanuel Fasesan, Fardin Aryan and Ibad Rehman will serve as the next Schulich School of Engineering Faculty representatives, with Fasesan getting the most votes at 25.1 per cent. 

Uncontested candidate Taylor Strelow will serve as the next Faculty of Nursing Representative receiving 97.8 per cent of the vote. Similarly, Stephanie Cheung will serve as the next Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Representative, getting 100 per cent of the vote. 

Uncontested candidate Siena Yee will serve as the next Werklund School of Education Representative, winning 95.2 per cent of the vote. 

Students-at-large 

Lujaina Eldelebshany will serve as the next Board of Governors (BoG) student-at-large, winning 86.8 per cent of the vote. 

“I’m thrilled, I’m glad the students elected me,” Eldelebshany said. “I think I bring some really great experiences from a variety of past positions and I think the opportunity to be with the (BoG) will really enable me to take that to the next level, with a different kind of demographic at the university level and I’m really excited to see what I have for the future here.” 

The next Senate representative roles will be held by Amber Quo and Laiba Nasir, after receiving 43.9 per cent and 30.8 per cent of the votes respectively. 

“It was an amazing competition, and I have to say thank you to everyone that supported, everyone who questioned maybe what I was campaigning on, everyone who supported me and voted, and especially those who didn’t vote. This was a great turnout, I’ll say 11 per cent, maybe not the best but it was great to see people engaged in the election, and I want to say congratulations to my competitor Laiba,” Quo said. 

“I feel really good. Thanks to everyone for voting for a first-year student. I promise I’ll do good,” Nasir said. 

The Faculty of Social Work Representative position will remain vacant this time, to be filled by the October by-elections. 

The results will become official on March 14 and elected officials. Representatives elected through the SU General Election sit on the Student Legislative Council (SLC) for a term of approximately one year, from May 1 to April 30 of the following year. The full list of executives, Faculty representatives and Student-at-Larges in the 83rd Student Legislative Council can be found on the SU’s website.