On March 16, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) announced the unofficial results of the 2025–2026 student elections, with InnovateUTM securing all executive positions. Voting took place from March 11–13, and the results are pending final approval at the upcoming UTMSU Board of Directors (BOD) meeting, which is expected to be held this month.

The presidential candidate’s vote is pending a recount due to a request that the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) received. 

Election results

For the upcoming academic year, students elected Andrew Park from InnovateUTM as the UTMSU’s president with 1,679 votes. EvolveUTM’s Nehal Nakib secured a total of 965 votes, while independent candidate Aryaman Chopra received a total of 109 votes. 

The rest of the winning executive positions were also part of the InnovateUTM slate. Miatah McCallum was elected vice-president (VP) equity with 1,591 votes; Rui (Owen) Zhang was elected VP internal with 1,601 votes; Rajas Dhamija was elected VP external with 1,619 votes; and finally Manaal Fatima was elected VP university affairs with 1,711 votes. 

There is a sixth executive position, VP campus life; per bylaws, this position is appointed by the BOD based on the recommendation of the Executive Search Committee. 

Voter turnout for this year’s election was approximately 19.2 per cent of eligible students — or about 2,880 students out of approximately 15,000 — marking a steady increase compared to the previous year’s turnout of about 16.3 per cent, and about 14 per cent in the 2023–2024 union election.

The presidential ballots were recounted following a request the CRO received from Chopra, noting a mistake made by the CRO. 

In an email to The Varsity, the CRO wrote they “accidentally excluded” Chopra from an email notice sent to candidates regarding ballot counting, resulting in Chopra being unable to appoint a scrutineer, who oversees the counting of paper ballots. 

Due to this oversight, the CRO agreed to recount the presidential ballots. The recount decreased the number of votes for each candidate by a few points. Originally, it was reported that Park had 1,683 votes, Nakib a total of 968 votes, and Chopra 110 votes. 

However, when EvolveUTM requested a recount for all executive positions, the CRO declined due to a high margin of difference between counts. The Varsity wasn’t able to confirm the reason for the slate’s recount request.

The CRO will present the final election report at the upcoming UTMSU BOD meeting in March. The exact date has not been announced. 

Board of Directors 

Every year, the UTMSU elects directors for its four divisions. Division I — First Year Representatives consists of first-year representatives on the board; Division II — Directors at Large refers to student directors enrolled as full-time undergraduates at UTM; Division III — Part Time Directors at Large is for part-time student representatives; and Division IV — Professional Faculties includes students registered in a professional faculty program at UTM, such as the Mississauga Academy of Medicine.

The election for first-year representatives will be held during the fall semester, once they’re enrolled as full-time undergraduate students. 

For Division II, 20 candidates ran for the 11 available positions. Students elected were David Han, Jordan MacLean, Summer Qiu, Sarah Gamal El-Dean, Safa Shuaib, Saad Hussain, Enran Zu, Abeeha Imitaz, Adam El-Falou, Farzana Ishmael, and Suleyman Yusuf. 

However, the CRO informed The Varsity over email that there is a less than five per cent difference in votes between the 11th, 12th, and 13th candidates, which triggers an automatic recount as per UTMSU’s 2025 Elections Procedure Code (EPC) to ensure accuracy in determining the final elected BOD member. 

This policy is part of a newly updated version of the EPC that is not yet public on UTMSU’s website. 

While the recount did result in some changes to the totals, the results stayed the same. 

The only candidate for Division III directors, Ryan Ellacot, dropped out after being unable to attain a sufficient number of signatures — at least five signatures, per the union bylaws — from part-time student nominees. The two vacancies for the Division III directors will remain open until the union’s fall by-election.

Samantha Bestavros — who ran unopposed for the Division IV director — will be approved for the position at the union’s next BOD meeting. Her name hasn’t appeared on the UTMSU website among the winning candidates; however, in their email, the CRO mentioned “[the website] has been undergoing some upgrades, which… may have interfered with the presentation.”

Referendum on levy fee adjustments 

UTM undergraduate students were presented with three referendum questions on adjustments to The Blind Duck Pub and UTM Student Centre levy fees. 

All three referendums were approved. The first question asked all students permission to adjust the Blind Duck Pub fee to match the Ontario Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a measure that reflects the change in the cost of an average assortment of goods and services — annually, per session. This referendum passed with 1,156 votes in favour. 

The second and third referendums asked full-time and part-time students respectively whether they also agreed to align their Student Centre fees with Ontario CPI annually, per session. The second passed with 1,089 in favour and the third with 1,103 votes in favour.

Going forward, then, every session, the UTMSU can increase the Blind Duck Pub Fee and the Student Centre fee by an amount equal to or less than what is indicated by the Ontario CPI without a referendum, similar to yearly increases made to the union’s membership fee and food bank fee.