Baiyu Liu has been elected as the President of the King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU) for the 2025/26 academic year with the slogan to “Save the Union”.
Baiyu Liu has won the 2025 KCLSU Presidential Election on a platform to “transform King’s with common sense solutions.”
The President-elect’s campaign rallied against alleged “KCLSU autocracy”, as he pledged to further democratise the organisation.
“KCLSU is the Student’s Voice to KCL, NOT the other way round.”
Baiyu Liu’s Campaign Manifesto
This year’s campaign was a hard-fought battle between Baiyu Liu, his high profile rival Joep Lahaije, the ISOC-endorsed candidate Uhayd, the former KCLSU officer Ali Gibson and Yuijie Zhang.
It was a close race as Liu achieved 34.27% (1,420) of the first-preference votes cast, with Uhayd in a close second, receiving 31.50% (1,305) of first preferences. Joep Lahaije came third after receiving 935 (22.57%) of first-preference votes.
The election saw a turnout of 4,143 first preferences cast overall.
Liu’s campaign was backed by the KCL Tories, the London Japanese Speakers Community and KCL Vocaloid Society among others.
Liu’s manifesto included a series of key pledges ranging from a 15% levy on room bookings made by organisations external to KCL to a referendum on the KCLSU’s NUS membership.
These are part of a wider platform which seeks to increase society funding and “cut the waste” in KCLSU through reducing the number of full-time staff.
Many of Liu’s commitments are outside the scope of powers enacted by previous student officers – encroaching on the authority reserved for the KCLSU and University administrations.
One example is Liu’s pledge to “fight to make sure no exams, lectures and office hours happen on a Friday”, which will require University consent to be achieved.
Other manifesto pledges included an expansion of University support for students struggling with the cost of living, the introduction of a shuttle bus system between KCL campuses, an insurance that student research assistant jobs are reserved for those studying at King’s and a pledge to move the production of KCLSU merchandise to China “to reduce manufacturing costs and increase textile quality.”
This result follows a year in which the KCLSU went without a President, after the victorious candidate, Hassan Ali, was deemed ineligible to hold office. This decision sparked protest action and questions over the KCLSU’s election integrity.
The outrage showed frustration with the KCLSU as well as wider scepticism around the importance of the role of its President throughout the student body, sentiments Liu will seek to reverse.
In his manifesto, Liu claimed Hassan Ali’s dismissal was “undemocratic” and pledged to “divest, divest, divest” in regards to the University’s outward investment policy.
The Results for the other university-wide posts were also announced:
- VP Activities & Development – Dulcie Wainwright-Pilton
- VP Arts & Sciences – Maryam Jamil
- VP Education – Hasnain Jafer
- VP Postgraduate – Sheeba Naaz
- VP Welfare & Community – Fatima Hire
- Student Trustees – Mahdi Ahmad, Priyanshu Kumar, Abdullahi Mohammad and Paulina Ytuarte
This year’s election have seen a relatively strong turnout, but many societies struggled to attract candidates. Analysis by Roar found 1,272 committee roles were left absent this year, putting the future of many societies into uncertain territory.
To find the results for your society’s election go to the KCLSU results page.
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