Guild Election Results: Lily Margaroli voted as President for second year
From left to right: Emma de Saram (VP Liberation and Equality); Izzie Dyer (VP Opportunities); Lily Margaroli (Guild President); Jack Liversedge (VP Education); James Coffin (Sports President).
Image by Exeter Students’ Guild
The Students’ Guild election results were announced on Friday 18 March at 7:30 pm in the Ram Marquee – a new candidate was elected for each of the three Vice President positions as well as for Sports President, and incumbent Guild President Lily Margaroli was voted in for a second year in office.
It was a close night for the candidates standing for Guild President and VP Opportunities – the Students’ Guild uses a preferential ballot system for elections, and in both categories a winning outcome wasn’t apparent until the final stage when just two candidates remained.
Lily Margaroli, the current Guild President, won the race to resume her role in Stage Three with 1,529 votes, despite not reaching the quota threshold of 1,606.5 – she came out 225 votes ahead of Frank Allen, who received 1,304 in the final stage. Margaroli also beat Maria Aspinall who received 934 votes before being eliminated at Stage Two, and Jonathon Parker who received 375 votes and was eliminated at Stage One.
In her winner’s speech, Margaroli said: “Thank you to everyone who supported my campaign, has supported me this year, and supported me throughout three years doing my degree here at Exeter. I am really looking forward to the rest of this year, and the year ahead.”
Voter turnout was down this year with 4,200 students voting (15.4 percent of the Exeter student body) compared to 4,744 last year (19.3 percent of students).
Five candidates stood for VP Opportunities – Johna Aswin Selva, Lowenna Wagstaff, Mehreen Nasir, Izzie Dyer, and Kaif ur Rahman – and the results in this category were the tightest of the night. Dyer won by 43 votes ahead of Wagstaff in Stage Four, whilst Rahman, Nasir, and Selva were eliminated in the first three stages respectively.
Dyer thanked those who voted for her as well as voicing her gratitude for the team who helped her campaign: “I have had the most amazing team in the world – they are a credit as to why I want to do this role. I want to give everyone else an opportunity to find that amazing group.”
Emma de Saram won for VP Liberation and Equality and received the most votes at Stage One out of all the candidates in each of the five electoral categories, with a total of 1,728 votes. She won against Manav Hartono and Hannah Blackwell. In her speech she said: “When I was out there campaigning, I wasn’t trying to sell myself – I was talking about my values, the things I care about, and community driven change – it wasn’t about me, it was about what I can do for this Uni.”
Jack Liversedge won VP Education over Thomas Glover and Souradeep Sengupta with 1,477 votes at Stage One. Liversedge praised the other candidates in his category for running “brilliant campaigns” and said he couldn’t wait to get started in the job.
The role of Sports President was won by James Coffin in Stage One with a total of 1,505 votes, beating James Gowing and Arlen Veysey. As well as thanking his campaign team, Coffin said: “My experience at this University has been made by Exeter sport. I have loved every minute of every club I have been part of. To give back next year, I am so looking forward to it.”
Friday’s results comes after a week of campaigns, and two weeks of live debates and interviews with XpressionFM. The results night at the Ram was also the first in-person election night for two years – last year the election results for the 2021/22 officer positions were announced online as England was still under heavy social distancing measures in the third national lockdown.
Voter turnout was down this year: 4,200 students voted (15.4 percent of the student body) compared to 4,744 last year (19.3 percent). Last year’s turnout was the highest in the University sector.
The newly elected Guild Officers will assume their roles in the summer. The full results breakdown can be found here.