The results of the York Students’ Union’s 2025 elections have been unveiled at YSTV’s live broadcast at Hendrix Hall.

The results were on a lower turnout than last year, with 17,42 % voting, down from 26,54%. 16,539 votes were cast by 4,299 individual voters. Thus, the average voter put a ballot in for 3.85 election fights.

YSTV’s coverage of the night was hosted by URY Deputy Station Manager Tolan Enderby and the network’s own Frances Halewood. The election used the Single Transferable Vote system, and while the hosts explained it using an example election, candidates to whom York Vision spoke on the night admitted they found the system confusing.

Host Tolan Enderby spoke exclusively to York Vision after the broadcast, saying that “some [victors] were chill, some were not”, but that hosting was a good experience.

Newly elected Union Development Officer Anna Lindberg told Vision: “I’m still a bit overwhelmed!” She said she was looking forward to starting her new role.

Re-elected Activities Officer Kaitlyn Beattie-Zarb said she was feeling “pretty good”. When asked what her first plans were once in office, she said: “I just want to get started.” Re-elected Union Affairs Officer Lewis Parrey said he felt “everything and nothing all at the same time”, saying “I want to put power back into students’ hands, with the University and Student Union, for the decision-making of what their University looks like”. When Vision asked about the Union recently negotiating with the University to raise rents by an average of 6%, he said that negotiations were “difficult”, but that any rent increase was “unacceptable”.

Here are the full results from an intense, and often dramatic, night.

Academic Officer: Aya Huidar

Aya Huidar takes over from Fenella Johnson as Academic Officer from 2025/26. She told YSTV: “I don’t know what to say! I honestly just really want to make students’ lives better, in terms of academics… I’m proud of everyone who ran against me, I think everyone had very, very amazing campaigns.”

In a change from the previous election cycle, this one had plenty of competition compared with the previous cycle, in which Johnson was unopposed.

The result is also a good example of the benefits of the single transferable vote. Had the election been run on first-past-the-post, like a Parliamentary election, Yuling Shi would have won the vote, yet Huidar won through second-choice votes.

Activities Officer: Kaitlyn Beattie-Zarb

The first candidate to be re-elected last night, Kaitlyn Beattie-Zarb needed only three rounds, and gained the highest first-round percentage of any candidate on the night.

Beattie-Zarb said after winning: “This has been the most stressful week of my life!” Asked by YSTV how she would celebrate, she quipped “… Drinking?! That was always going to be the plan whether we won or lost!”

Community & Wellbeing Officer: Samuel Dickinson

Samuel Dickinson stormed ahead with a large gap in the first round and the question soon became how quickly he would reach the 50% threshold. He needed only three rounds of voting to unseat incumbent Freddy Russell. YSTV’s graphics did not reveal the other candidates’ votes that night.

Dickinson said to YSTV: “I’m overwhelmed… I want to thank all the other candidates, who were all amazing, particularly Freddy, who ran a fantastic campaign. I enjoyed it so much, thank you everyone.” 

In the green room, he told URY: “Probably the easiest point to target straight away would be to sort out something with laundry and subsidise it in some way. I’m not delusional about the power of the role, but you could advocate for colleges to give complimentary cleaning products then, longer-term, advocating for a reduction in the cost.”

Equality & Inclusion Officer: Abi Harrison

Abi Harrison beat out Janvi Arjula to take the position from Teddy Bland, who won in a by-election last year. This position was particularly close, and the result sparked gasps in the room (the gap looked bigger on the TV). Speaking to URY, she said: “I ran because my partner is a disabled student at York, and I found out that disabled students couldn’t be with the rest of their cohort at graduation, and that upset me to the point where I went, ‘I have to do something about it’.”

Sports Officer: Darcy Graham

This vote never seemed to be in doubt from the beginning even if it took five rounds to confirm it. Darcy Graham takes over from Tanisha Jain.

She told YSTV: “This has been the most intense week of my life and it’s so surreal! My favourite part [of the campaign] has been meeting so many different people; I’ve adored being able to go and speak to so many different clubs. We have such a thriving community here at York, and getting to know each and every one of them has been the highlight.”

Union Development Officer: Anna Lindberg

This one was a dark horse victory, with Anna Lindberg-Newby unseating incumbent Gen Andrews by just 41 votes, and just 9 on the first round. She told Vision that it had been a “crazy night” and that she didn’t think she would win.

She told URY that: “my highlight has been one vivid memory of watching Married at First Sight with my flatmates while they were dramatically painting campaigning signs as quickly as they could! The outpouring of love and people whom you haven’t really spoken to messaging you. I have loads of friends who were like ‘I was talking about this to my mum and she asked me how I could vote!’ and it’s little things like that just to remind you of how much of a lovely community there is here.”

Union Affairs Officer: Lewis Parrey

Regardless of whether the negotiations over next year’s rent increase may have been a classic ‘October surprise’, this one felt like a four-way race. Nonetheless, from about Round 3 it became very clear that Lewis Parrey would be re-elected with little difficulty. That said, he faced tough opposition from Simon Edwards and Kate Collins, yet when the latter’s voters appeared not to have backed either of the two candidates left, Parrey won with 980 votes.

Parrey told URY after: “It looks like a really strong team. Obviously, it’s sad to see some people who I’ve been working with all year have to leave, but I think all of the candidates in every race have been so strong, so it’s been a really good line up.”