Meet your new SU: 2026 general election results announced
By Vama Saini, Elaine Liang, Matthew Johnson, Alexander Howey, Michael Sarsito and Leigh Patrick, March 5 2026—
Eager candidates and students alike 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 2026 semester voted for their candidates of choice from March 3 to 5. Students were able to vote or abstain for executive positions, their respective faculty representatives, Board of Governors (BoG) and Senate student-at-large representatives.
In total, 3,309 students voted in the general election which is a 10.7 per cent voter turnout.
This year, voters were faced with the majority of the executive races being uncontested, with the Presidential race being the only one contested by three candidates.
As for faculty representatives, only the Faculty of Arts representatives, Haskayne School of Business representatives, and Kinesiology representatives were contested. The Cumming School of Medicine representatives, Faculty of Law representative, Schulich School of Engineering representatives, Science representatives, Veterinary Medicine representative and Werklund School of Education were uncontested.
Both the BoG representative and Senate representative were uncontested.
Successful candidates provided a statement to the Gauntlet on their win and what they’re excited to accomplish for students in their upcoming term.
Executives
Gabriela Dziegielewska will serve as the next SU President with 66.1 per cent of the vote.
“I want to thank everyone for running, of course, and all my wonderful volunteers, I’m so excited to get started,” said Dziegielewska. “I really want to start day one and just change so many things to help better serve students, and I really want everyone to know that my office is always open to students that need help.”
Uncontested candidate Zoe Zeritsch will serve as the next Vice-President Academic with 89.6 per cent of the vote.
“I’m so happy to be starting this position,” said Zeritsch. “I’m going to fight so hard for students and I’m so excited to work with every single faculty rep. I’m so excited to work with the executives that were also elected.”
Uncontested candidate Abdu Negmeldin will serve as the next Vice-President Internal with 80.7 per cent of the vote.
“Thank you for putting your trust in me, I will do my absolute best effort to achieve everything I said and hopefully more,” said Negmeldin.
Uncontested candidate Mahad Rzain will serve as the next Vice-President External with 82.4 per cent of the vote.
“I would just like to thank all the students that were involved in this election, voting, organizing … and I just want you to stay tuned for updates because I really want to help students, support students, and gather input from students,” said Rzain of his recent victory.
Faculty representatives
Davina Elesin, Fatima Jarid, Xander Halsey-Dam and Abbas Hussain will serve as the next Faculty of Arts representatives, with Elesin getting the most votes at 25.9 per cent.
“I am very glad. This has been a lot of work not just on my part, but on the part of the people that encourage me to run […] my team, so it’s definitely not just me,” said Elesin. “I am like wow. I look back and I am like 619, I don’t know 619 people personally, so I am very glad.”
“I am just super happy, super excited, cause I’ve worked a lot in the SU clubs part of it and now I get to do it on the faculty level, so I’m super excited,” said Jarid. “And I guess I can’t wait to just meet everyone and see what everyone wants me to work on this year.”
“I am quite excited to see what happens. I just showed up and I’m happy to hear a positive result, but yeah I am looking forward to representing my constituents,” said Hussain. I am looking forward to doing what I can do.”
Uncontested candidates Laiba Nasir and Nikhil Srivalsan will serve as the next Cumming School of Medicine faculty representatives, with Nasir getting the most votes at 36.9 per cent.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity and I’m grateful to everyone who has helped support me in this election,” said Srivalsan. “I’m excited for the things coming forward in the upcoming year and the goals that I can achieve that I listed in my platform.”
“I’m really excited to be able to represent my faculty,” said Nasir. “The faculty is often dominated by voices in biomed, so I’m really happy to be able to create some diversity in that.”
Elias Karayiannis and Zahra Qazi will serve as the next Haskayne School of Business representatives, with Qazi getting the most votes at 41.7 per cent.
“I’m really excited to step into this role, and I’m really glad that I won,” said Qazi. “A week and a half of campaigning was a lot […] I’m really happy about that.”
“I’m really happy to have won. I’m proud of the Haskayne students for their confidence in Zahra and I — I think we will do great things together,” said Karayiannis. “After that scathing review from [the Gauntlet], I’m excited to prove you wrong.”
Noah Karmali will serve as the next Kinesiology representative, with 63.6 per cent of the votes.
“It was a nice experience getting to meet and work with new people, students and faculty, all together […] I’m grateful to my campaign manager and the hard work they put in. Huge shout out to the other two candidates. They’re both amazing and I hope to work with them on SU matters in the future,” said Karmali.
Uncontested candidate Mickail Hendi will serve as the next Faculty of Law representative, with 90.8 per cent of the vote.
“I’m very grateful [to] the faculty of law for showing their support for me,” said Hendi. “I look forward to a very productive year of representing the SU.”
Uncontested candidate Natasha Tenor will serve as the next Nursing representative, with 96.2 per cent of the vote.
Uncontested candidates Jana Abdelrahman and Ahsan Khadiza will serve as the next Schulich School of Engineering representatives, with Abdelrahman getting 41.5 per cent of the vote.
“I’m genuinely happy that I’m being trusted with this. I know the position was uncontested but it’s nice to know that people went out and voted for me. I want to make sure the students feel like they are heard and listened to,” said Abdelrahman.
Uncontested candidates Warren Hamill, Yansing Huang, Sehaj Kang and Carrar Saleh will serve as the next Science representatives, with Huang getting the most votes at 19.9 per cent of the vote.
“Keep digging in and getting involved, the election is just the start of it, but now we get to do all the hard work and make science better,” said Hamill.
Uncontested candidate Samuel McFetridge will serve as the next Veterinary Medicine representative, with 93.3 per cent of the vote.
Uncontested candidate Siena Yee will return to the Students’ Legislative Council (SLC) as the Werklund School of Education representative, with 93.8 per cent of the vote.
Faculty representatives for the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Schulich School of Engineering and Social Work will remain vacant until a by-election in October. With an appointment process for the spring and summer term.
Students-at-Large
Uncontested candidate Aitazaz Shah will serve as the next Board of Governors Student-at-Large representative, with 84.2 per cent of the vote.
“I think it’s important to stay active, the work has just started now … We had over 3000 students who voted in this election, so thank you to all those who voted in this election,” said Shah of his recent election victory.
Uncontested candidate Ophelia Vecchione will serve as the next Senate Student-at-Large representative, with 89.8 per cent of the vote.
With one vacancy with the Senate Student-at-Large representative, an additional by-election will be called in October. With an appointment process for the spring and summer term.
“My biggest thing is thank you to those who did vote, especially with the voter turnout being lower this year,” said Vecchione. “I’m just grateful for having gotten the amount of votes that I did.”
Referendum
Students in the winter 2026 term were asked one referendum question on the financing of a Mac Hall Redevelopment Fund. The redevelopment fund would see an expansion of Mac Hall for more services and physical spaces on campus. Funding would be through a new fee that would progressively decrease for upper-year students.
Students were able to vote yes or no, or abstain in this year’s referendum question.
The question put to students asked “Do you support implementing a fee, as outlined in the table above and subject to the Fund Rules, to finance the Mac Hall Redevelopment Fund starting in the Fall term of the 2026/27 academic year?”
Students voted yes on the redevelopment fund, with the yes vote getting 55.2 per cent of the vote.
The results of the election and referendum will become official on March 13th. Representatives elected through the SU General Election sit on the Students’ 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 84th Student Legislative Council can be found on the SU’s website.