Bangladeshi-origin Anisha elected Oxford SU president

Anisha Faruk, a Bangladeshi-origin student and former co-chair of the Oxford University Labour Club, has been elected president of the Oxford University Student Union, according to UNB.

She clinched the victory in a tough election for president of the Oxford SU. The results were announced at an event at the Weston Library, and show significant victories for Faruk’s Impact: Oxford slate, according to oxfordstudent.com.

The presidential election went through three rounds of preferential voting. RON was defeated in the first round, with Anisha, Ivy Manning and Ellie Milne-Brown gathering 1,222, 1,075 and 1,013 votes respectively. Ellie was eliminated in the second round, collecting a total of 1,022 votes against Anisha’s 1,240 and Ivy’s 1,095.

Ivy picked up most of Ellie’s preferential votes, boosting her total to 1,416 but this was not enough to unseat Anisha who finished with 1,529, placing her over the 50 per cent threshold to win.

Anisha’s Impact: Oxford slate swept most of the board on election night. Ally Ray Williams beat a crowded field of four candidates to win VP for Access and Academic Affairs, as did slatemate Neil Misra for VP for Graduates.

The turnout for the election set a new record in raw numbers, with 4,792 voters casting 28,823 votes between them. The previous record was set in Michaelmas 2013 with 4,494 voters. Approximately 20.3 per cent of the student body voted.