SU Elections 2026: Results

On March 5, the results for the Students’ Union (SU) 2026 elections were announced at Dewey’s. According to the Elections Office, there was an 17.22 per cent voter turnout with a total of 6,449 votes. This is about a 5.4 decrease from 2025.

Megan Garbutt, chief returning officer, announced the results for the plebiscites and referendum. Current or past SU executives announced the results of the executive and Board of Governors representative races.

Sesek elected SU president with 52 per cent of votes 

In the presidential race, 5,261 votes were cast. With 2,412 votes — 52 per cent of the vote —  Joseph Sesek, a third-year psychology student, was elected as the next SU president. 

“I’d like to, first and foremost, thank the students who voted for me, entrusting their confidence in me in fulfilling their commitments that I made during the campaign,” Sesek said. “I promise you will not be disappointed.”

“I look forward to all of you meeting the non-campaign Joseph. I’m a lot less serious and a lot cooler than I may have given off.”

Current vice-president (external) (VPX) and presidential candidate Abdul Abbasi congratulated Sesek and the incoming executive team. 

“We tried, and good luck to Joseph and the vision,” Abbasi said.

—Kathryn Johnson

Angel Raina elected vice-president (external) with 60 per cent of votes

Angel Raina, a fourth-year political science and economics student and current Students’ Council speaker, was elected as the next vice-president (external) (VPX).

Raina won the race with 60 per cent of the votes in the third round of voting.

Raina said that her win was “extremely unexpected.” She said she “only prepped what to tell [her] wonderful competition.”

She said it was a “pleasure to meet” Rodenbush, and that he has “always been so kind during the forums.”

Raina also said that Chauhan was “exquisite competition,” and seeing Chauhan’s volunteers motivated her to “run more and talk to more folks.”

Rodenbush told The Gateway that the result “was to be expected.” He said this was his first time running and it was “kind of spontaneous.” He said he is “glad Raina won” and he felt like she was “definitely the most qualified.”

He plans to use “this year to prepare” to re-run next year. He said he was “definitely disorganized” this time but that his supporters should not “fret” because “Rodenbush is coming back.”

Chauhan said she was “really impressed with [her] race.” She said Raina “is a great candidate” and “is very competent.” 

She said it was “really nice getting to know [Rodenbush] along the process.” She is graduating this semester.

—Lucy Stuckey

Vice-president (operations and finance) was not announced due to a pending ruling

The winner of the vice-president (operations and finance) (VPOF) race was not announced. 

“Unfortunately, due to a pending ruling, the winner of this race will not be announced this evening,” Garbutt said.

The CRO is responsible for issuing rulings on complaints of campaign rule and bylaw violations. The ruling must be posted within 48 business hours. According to bylaw 330.08, the CRO must post the election results within two days of the ruling.

The Gateway spoke to candidate Armaan Singh after the announcement.

“When I was coming here, I was okay to lose, I was okay to win. I was not okay for this,” Singh said. 

He went on to say “even if I lose, I’m going to come back. If I win, I hope to keep all the promises I made in the forums.”

Candidate Logan West was not present at the results event.

—Evan Cruickshank

Susan Huseynova elected vice-president (academic) with 80 per cent of votes

Susan Huseynova, a second-year immunology infection and political science student, won the vice president (academic) (VPA) position after one round of voting. She ran uncontested.

“I really look forward to continuing the work of this year’s [VPA] and what the university also has and plans,” she said.

She went on to say “even though it wasn’t a surprising win, I still don’t minimize the trust that students put in to still vote for my name.”

In an interview, Huseynova said she’s interested to continue work on Course Materials Access in light of the tight plebiscite results.

—Evan Cruickshank

Wall elected vice-president (student life) with 53 per cent of the vote

Paige Wall, a third-year kinesiology, sport, and recreation (KSR) student and 2025–26 KSR councillor, was elected to be the new VPSL with 53 per cent of votes in the fourth round. 

In her speech, Wall thanked her competitors and volunteers. 

“It was just a great competition and a great experience overall. Even if I hadn’t won, I still would have loved it. All of us were great candidates, and I would have been happy if anyone had won,” Wall said. 

Brish Goorimoorthee, a third-year media studies student, stated in an interview with The Gateway that “it was a well fought race. Any of the results is surprising. None of the candidates knew how it would end. [He is] happy with the results.” 

As for his next steps, Goorimoorthee said he will continue to be involved with the SU and hands-on event planning. 

“I hope to get a position within the SU,” Goorimoorthee said. 

Nolan Greenwood, a fourth-year business economics and law student and 2025–26 president of the Lister Hall Student Association (LHSA), told The Gateway that it was a good race. 

As for his plans for the future, Greenwood said he has not “really decided yet.” 

Manyu Rathour, a second-year computing science student and 2025–26 wellness ambassador for Lister Residence, stated in an interview with The Gateway that he is “very proud of Paige …  and [he] looks forward to seeing the great work she does.” 

Rathour said that he will continue to be with his community and around campus. 

—Fernanda Campana Omori

Khan elected as BoG Representative with 53 per cent of the vote

Amaan Khan, a fourth-year computing science student and current SU science councillor, was elected as the BoG representative for 2026–2027.

Khan won the race with 53 per cent in the third round of voting. 

“I want to give a shoutout to Janardhun [Alagarsamy Vignesh] and Tala [Mojarrad] for being such amazing competition,” Khan said in his acceptance speech.

Khan also said “The Gateway wanted specifics on what I would do this year. To that I have one word to say: Inshallah.”

Mojarrad said that she was really “shocked” about the results, “but also happy.”

She said “I also learned a lot, which was ultimately really important for me. Everything that I do, I want to learn, and I learned a lot from this campaign.”

Mojarrad said that she plans to continue to work with the university for a better response to political crisis for students.

She said “maybe [I’ll run] for the council, maybe for the International Student Association (ISA), because I’m an international student.”

Alagarsamy Vignesh said that he did not care about the results, because he believes the position will go to “good friends.” 

“I just [want to] take care of the students … it doesn’t matter who wins. It’s about if the students win,” he said.

Alagarsamy Vignesh said he was probably going to run for Students’ Council or General Faculties Council (GFC) because “I have to show up. It’s not about me, it wasn’t about the position. It was about making a change.”

—Erin Widmark-Pickle

Plebiscites and referndum results

The Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society (ISSS) plebiscite passed with 70 per cent of votes in favour. The plebiscite increases the current $5 per semester fee to $7.

“Thank you all who voted in favour. This fee is ultimately meant to go back to the students’ pockets and we’re really happy that we won today,” ISSS Co-President Christene Saji said. 

“We’re really excited and proud of the work that we put into making this $7 into all the great initiatives we’re hoping to start up,” ISSS Co-President Parinika Pal said. 

The Golden Bears and Pandas Legacy Fund plebiscite passed with 57 per cent in favour. It renews the current $5.11 per semester fee.

“We thank everybody in this room for helping us out. Go sports,” Molly said.

The Lister Hall Students’ Association (LHSA) plebiscite passed with 86 per cent in favour. This renews the $75 per year fee for Lister residents.

Representing the LHSA, Kieran Simpson thanked everyone who voted. 

The East Campus Students’ Association (ECSA) referendum passed with 60 per cent in favour. East Campus residents will pay $10 per year for this fee.

“This is kind of the first year that ECSA has really existed, so this was a huge win for us,” Meagan Lang said. 

By a margin of 24 votes, 50 per cent of students voted no to the Course Materials Access program plebiscite. The plebiscite asked if students felt the U of A should go ahead with the CMA program, which would charge students $259 in the fall and winter semester, and $139 in the spring and summer, for access to primarily digital versions of course materials.

The Education Students’ Association (ESA) membership fee did not pass due to failure to meet the required voter turn out. The ESA plebiscite would have renewed its $8 per year fee.

The Nursing Undergraduate Association (NUA) membership fee also did not pass due to failure to meet quorum. The NUA plebiscite would have increased the current fee from $14.31 to $15 per term for full-time students, and from $10.60 to $11 per term for part-time students.

—Kathryn Johnson