The winners of the LeadMCR 2025 elections have been announced.
10,028 students voted in LeadMCR 2025, an increase from last year’s 8,520. This is around a quarter of the student population of the University of Manchester.
Over 10,000 more individual votes were cast this year, compared to the 2024 total of 40,263. This puts the total individual votes at 50,599.
The winners are:
- Union Affairs: Lexie Baynes
- Activities and Culture: Aaina Mohapatra
- Wellbeing and Liberation: Sharon Mary Dominic Raj
- City and Community: Elliot Briffa
- Humanities: Alec Severs
- Science and Engineering: Amrit Dhillon
- Biology, Medicine, and Health: Rhi Patel
- Postgraduate Research: Rachel Miller
This year sees two incumbents (Lexie Baynes and Elliot Briffa) retake their roles, with the remaining three eligible incumbents failing to be reelected.
Union Affairs received the most votes out of any role: 7,145. Lexie Baynes won with 3,940. By The Mancunion’s count, Baynes received 25 total endorsements from societies within the Manchester Students’ Union. Her competitor Emily Bennett received 21. Baynes will continue to represent the student voice within the Union and in conversation with the University and told The Mancunion her main focus is “living expenses”.
Aaina Mohapatra replaces Charlie Roberts as Activities and Culture Officer, despite Charlie having 19 more society endorsements. Mohapatra won with 3,104 out of 6,608 votes. Speaking to The Mancunion, Mohapatra said her main focus is to make the University of Manchester more “culturally integrated”. The role encompasses student societies, activities, and international students.
Wellbeing and Liberation had 6,110 votes. The winner, Sharon Mary Dominic Raj, won with 2,887. She will replace Aisha Akram who has served the maximum term of two terms. Her idea statement focused on developing mental health services, campaigning for financial assistance, and decolonising university policies.
Elliot Briffa has been elected for a second term as City and Community Officer, a role that aims to help students engage with the wider city community. Briffa received 3,298 out of 6,261 votes and had 26 society endorsements. His idea statement for this year focuses on rent prices, subsidies for students joining trade unions, and lobbying the University to enact “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” policies in relation to the “genocide of Palestinians”.
All the faculty roles this year will be taken over by new officers.
Humanities Officer received a total of 6,444 votes. Alec Severs won with 2,414. He replaces Katie Jackson who has served the two-term limit. Severs’ idea statement speaks about educating students on tenants’ and workers’ rights, lobbying the University to implement ethical practices, and prioritising “student-led” education.
Amrit Dhillon won with 2,892 out of 5,707 votes for Science and Engineering. She replaces the incumbent Nahid Farzalizadeh. Dhillon’s idea statement focuses on a new timetable system, raising awareness of unit survey feedback, and improving the support of lecturers.
Biology, Medicine and Health was hotly contested, with only 97 votes between the winner and the runner-up. Rhi Patel will be taking over the role from Gabrielle Bailey, after winning 2,773 of the 6,327 votes. Patel’s campaign has been focused on improving the student hardship fund and supporting student-led activism on campus.
The role of Postgraduate Officer gained the least overall votes with only 759. This is due to the fact that only PGRs were allowed to vote for this role. Rachel Miller won with 349 votes, with no incumbent competing. Her ideas statement focused on further integrating postgraduates into the campus community and lobbying for more resources to help support students.
Your new team of Students’ Union Executive Officers will commence their roles at the start of the 2025/26 academic year.
