Vedanand Har­gob­in has emerged vic­to­ri­ous in the 2025 Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies Guild of Stu­dents elec­tion, ac­cord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary re­sults re­leased on Fri­day.

Har­gob­in re­ceived 1,047 votes, or 46.78 per cent of the to­tal bal­lots cast, in the race for pres­i­dent of the Guild of Stu­dents at the St Au­gus­tine cam­pus. He was fol­lowed by Steven Palmer, who se­cured 927 votes.

A to­tal of 264 stu­dents, or 11.80 per cent ab­stained from vot­ing in the pres­i­den­tial race.

The re­sults were an­nounced in a mem­o­ran­dum is­sued by Kobe N Sandy, the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer for the elec­tion.

In the race for vice pres­i­dent, An­uo­la Archer led with 991 votes.

Zarah Wanz­er was the lead­ing can­di­date for sec­re­tary with 1,012 votes.

In the race for trea­sur­er, Shi­va Paul won with 933 votes.

The pre­lim­i­nary re­sults come as the Guild pre­pares to tran­si­tion from its out­go­ing ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil, which faced pub­lic scruti­ny ear­li­er in the aca­d­e­m­ic year. Dur­ing the 2024–25 term, stu­dents voiced con­cerns re­lat­ed to Guild op­er­a­tions and fi­nan­cial trans­paren­cy. 

There was a no-con­fi­dence mo­tion against for­mer Guild pres­i­dent Kir­by Moses and calls for her to re­sign af­ter her broth­er was ap­point­ed as trea­sur­er. In Sep­tem­ber last year, Moses was re­moved and the po­si­tion was de­clared va­cant, paving the way for elec­tions.

The new re­sults are sub­ject to cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer.

Once fi­nalised, the new ex­ec­u­tive coun­cil will be tasked with rep­re­sent­ing the stu­dent body and over­see­ing Guild op­er­a­tions for the up­com­ing aca­d­e­m­ic year.