KCLSU Elections: Your New Student Officers

Ben Hunt, current VP for Education (Arts and Sciences) has won the election to be KCLSU’s new President, amidst calls for the elections to be made more accessible for liberation groups.

The other Student Officer and Liberation Association positions were won by the following people:
Vice President for Welfare and Community: Mahammed Abdullahi
Vice President for Education (Arts and Sciences): Mariya Hussain
Vice President for Education (Health): Jack Haywood
Vice President for Activities and Development: Momin Saquib
International Students’ Officer: Muhammed Haider Abbas
LGBT Officer (Open Place): Echo Watkins
LGBT Officer (Trans Place): Ed Donald
People of Colour Officer: Nadia Vogel
Widening Participation Officer: Farwa Naumann
Disabled Students’ Officer: Georgina Spearing
Women’s Officer: Zahra Butt

Before the results of the Presidential elections were announced, representatives from KEMA took to the stage and gave an impassioned speech expressing their disappointment that women and trans people of colour felt unable to run for student officer positions. They also called on the newly elected sabbs to do more to represent the liberation groups on campus, claiming that the Union and the College have “failed to support [them]”.

“Everytime we voice our concerns, we are being dismissed, we are being labelled angry”.

In his post-election speech next year’s President Ben Hunt pledged to address these issues and make the campaign process accessible to all.

VP for Education (Arts and Sciences) Mariya Hussain used her speech to outline her plans to keep on “making changes” and to ensure that the College “cares for all its students”.

Momin Saquib, voted new VP for Activities and Development, promised to be “the best VPAD ever”, while Jack Haywood, VP for Education (Health) took the chance to congratulate all the other candidates.

Mahammed Abdullahi expressed his gratitude to his support team and promised to “work to make [King’s] a better place for you, because that’s why I ran”.

3731 votes were cast overall in the elections, with the most closely contested race being for the VP Education (Health), where just 98 votes separated the top two candidates.