Election 2018: Thompson wins Presidential election
Aaron Thompson is the new President-elect of Kent Union, following the results of the leadership elections in The Venue on Monday 12 March.
Thompson, incumbent Vice-President (Activities), defeated challenger Rowena Bicknell to become President for 2018-19 term; he will take over from current President, Ruth Wilkinson.
In an interview for KTV, Mr Thompson said that he was “overwhelmed” by the amount of support he received throughout his election campaign, and that next year “will be a great year for Kent Union.”
He added: “I believe in students. I believe that we as a leadership don’t do enough to represent students; we should give [representatives] the skills and the toolkit to do just that. I believe our current leadership roles are broken or not currently supported enough, like our part time officer who I want to support more and have their voices heard.”
The other full-time officer positions were won by: Stuart Lidbetter, Vice-President of Education; Sasha Langeveldt, Vice-President of activities; Omolade Elizebeth Adedapo, Vice-President of Welfare; and Emily Window, Vice-President of Sport.
Elected as part-time officers: Davino Beckford, Black Space BME Officer; Kg Banjoko Open Space BME Officer; Charlie Hindley, LGBT Officer Trans Place; Aarish Hyder, International Student Officer and Darwin Student Committee President; Christine Bishop, Mature Students Officer; Tiffany OD, Environment Officer; Oluwatobiloba Kolawole-Olutade, Ethics Officer; Silvana Marianou, RAG President; Pravena Jawahar Eliot Student Committee President; Robbie MacKinnon Undergraduate Humanities Faculty Officer; Ethan Basso Undergraduate Sciences Faculty Officer, Melissa Neave, Undergraduate Social Sciences Faculty Officer; Kate Docking, Postgraduate Research Humanities Faculty Officer and Student Trustees Lily Dedman and Alex Still.
The Union’s new sabbatical officer team will take office in June, and will work to represent all students and have a positive impact on the student experience.
Writing on her Facebook page, Vice-President of Welfare-Elect Omolade Adedapo wrote: “[T]hank you to every single person who voted and believed in me. This is only the beginning, and I am so excited to work with the new sabbatical officers next year to show the importance of representation and leadership to BAME students at Kent.”
New Vice-President (Activities) Sasha Langeveldt sent her “Congratulations to my new team. I look forward to working with you all next year. There will be challenges, but that’s why there are five of us instead of one. We will be there to support each other and work just as hard to ensure UKC students get the representation they deserve.”
Emily Window, the Vice-President of Sport-Elect, sent a message to all students saying: “Whether or not your preferred candidate won, thank you for getting your voice heard. I’m delighted, excited and completely honoured to be Kent Union’s next Sports Vice-President.”
This year’s elections saw a slight increase in the number of students voting; 3542 students took part, which was 166 more votes than last year’s KU election.
Results night was originally scheduled to go ahead on Friday 9 March, however results night was pushed back to the following Monday, due to the Medway School of Pharmacy being unable to cast their vote after data protection technical issues.
Relive KTVs Election Results Night Coverage here:
