Current SUS President Bilal Faisal Faheem gave insight on any new expectations for the new president in the next term.
“Along with the standard expectations that you would have from any SUS president starting their term, navigating the way forward after the Health and Dental Referendum failed [will] be a key thing on their plate. Another big responsibility [will] be to work with the SUS executive director to ensure that SUS remains in a strong position amidst the low student enrollment that we are seeing everywhere from international students. There will be more work to do on the UFV Properties Trust, SUS representation, and continuing the FVX 66 advocacy.”
For Vice President Internal (VPI), Prabujot Bagri was elected with 45 per cent of the votes, tallied from 732 votes in total. Zack Castiglia was voted as Vice President External (VPE), with 53 per cent of the votes tallied from 742 in total. Vice President Students (VPS) was determined to be Saif Qazilbash with 55 per cent of the votes tallied from 699 votes in total. Nine student representatives at large were elected with Chloe Boughen, Amtoj Brar, Gurarmaan Dhillon, Balkarn Singh Gill, Prabcharn Singh Mahal, Josh Parson, Pranya Rana, Rudhar Sachdeva, and Abhayjeet Singh.
Along with determining SUS’s new presidential members, students were also casting votes for whether or not they agreed with the referendum, which asks students on behalf of the SUS Board of Directors if they support an increase in UFV’s Health and Dental Plan fee to $249 per year, with CPI indexing, from the current 2025/26 fee of $195. The price hasn’t changed for 12 years, and would still give students an opt-out option, but out of 369 votes, 52 per cent of students voted no for the fee increase, and 48 per cent said yes.
Faheem shared his response on how the referendum will affect students.
“The failure of the referendum vote [means] the fee won’t be increased and will remain at $196 [per] year. Unfortunately, with the rising costs, the fee will not be enough for the current benefits and coverage. The SUS team would work with Alumo, previously known as StudentCare, to see where we can reduce the benefits and still keep the program running with the current fee. The goal would be to maximize the coverage with what we have but students can expect some cuts to the current plan benefits and coverages in the next year. Ultimately, SUS will work to get the best deal for UFV students with the limited fee.”
Votes came in fairly steadily within the first two days of the voting period but then declined, and very few votes were entered on the final day. This year’s election saw a slight decrease in turnout and number of voters compared to 2025. There was an eight per cent voter turnout with a total of 824 student voters in 2026 compared to 990 student voting and a nine per cent turnout in 2025.
Additionally, the 2026 election had a great amount of complaint activity during the voting period with seven complaints and five warnings having occurred, and the majority was regarding candidate campaigning online and/or in-person or UFV Clubs and Associations promoting them. The campaign period experienced 30 complaints mostly about misplaced posters, club endorsements, and ethical behavior.
Faheem added that they plan to have more tactics for getting students to engage after experiencing a lower turnout and more complaints.
“To get more feedback on how the elections were for the candidates, the elections officer (EO) will be sending out a feedback form to all the candidates to get their valuable input which will help us strengthen our policies with the changing environments. The next executive team will also be tasked with revising and strengthening the elections policies even further after keeping in account the recommendations from the EO.”
Veronica is a Staff Writer at The Cascade. She loves to travel and explore new places, no matter how big or small. She is in her second year at UFV, pursuing the study of Creative
Writing.