In a tight race for five seats on SA’s e-board for the 2025-26 term, the REAL party’s Aisha Bechir secured the presidency, with Stampede party members taking SA’s vice president and treasurer positions. SA’s vice presidents for advocacy, clubs and events will be Mason Bayer, William Dong and Benjamin Lau respectively. Jack Koscinski will serve as the e-board’s treasurer.
Bechir received 960 votes, 35.15% of votes for president, leading her runner-up, Stampede party’s Gavin Krauciunas by 51 votes.
Bayer received 926 votes, 32.35% of votes for vice president for advocacy; Dong received 921 votes, 33.67% of votes for vice president for clubs; and Lau received 981 votes, 35.97% of votes for vice president for events. Bayer led his closest opponent by approximately 110 votes; the rest of the candidates led by approximately 60 votes with their closest opponents.
Koscinski received 1116 votes, 41.33% of votes for treasurer, ahead of his closest opponent by 169 votes.
Keeping with similar themes as her run for SA’s presidency last year, Bechir advocated for increased transparency and direct communication from SA on policy changes and activities. She proposed installing an online transparency dashboard to have SA be more accessible to students.
The Stampede party candidates also ran under themes of transparency and accountability with promises to have monthly town halls and newsletters. Additionally, the four candidates plan to increase supplemental funding available for student clubs and divert more money towards SA’s larger events — including the Fest concerts — to add talent and variety.
SA’s current president, Samin Bhuya, told The Spectrum that he will be mainly facilitating the training for the new executive officers, with help from SA Vice President Killian Hannigan, SA Treasurer Louis Poon and additional SA pro-staff.
Approximately 13,755 votes were tallied for this year’s election, roughly 85.3% greater than last year’s election which had 7,423 votes counted.
Hannah Rashad contributed to the reporting of this article.
Rodrigo Feijao is the senior sports editor and can be reached at rodrigo.feijao@ubspectrum.com.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com.
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @my_my_my_myliennnn on Instagram.
