With the highest voter turnout in years, OUSA’s 2026 Executive Election concluded on Thursday, September 25th. Just over 2300 votes were cast in a chaotic campaign period that saw a barrage of social media posts, chalking, and posters around campus. After snagging 52.45% of the votes, Daniel Leamy is your OUSA President for 2026*.
The most high-profile race of the Executive election was for President. Two current Executive members faced off to be the face and leadership of our students’ association: incumbent President Liam White and current Finance and Strategy Officer (FSO) Daniel Leamy. This was the first time the top dog position has been contested since 2022.
The face-off soon became larger than just the Presidential candidates alone. Both Daniel and Liam ran on tickets, a campaign strategy where candidates run together. Daniel campaigned alongside Sam Smith-Soppet, who ran for Administrative Vice-President. Shortly after this ticket was launched, Liam came forward with a ‘Progress, Not Cuts’ ticket, which ultimately fizzled out within a couple of days following revelations not all of the eight candidates had consented to be included. Despite this hiccup, Liam continued to campaign with other candidates such as FSO Troy Gibbons, cross-endorsing with others as well.
After a week of campaigning and a four-day voting period, the election results were announced in the close-to-packed-out Main Common Room on Thursday – minus the studying students who scurried out. OUSA Secretary Donna Jones and Returning Officer Abby Bowmar took the stage to announce results, starting out with the ten hour role results and building up to the headline race. Small rounds of applause followed the announcement of each successful candidate.
To conclude was the moment everyone had been waiting for. With 1,208 votes (52.45% share), Daniel Leamy had just beaten Liam White’s 1,095 votes (47.65% share) – a margin of just 113 votes. The room erupted into celebration in what can only be described as a packed-out pub when the All Blacks score a winning try. Daniel’s flatmates were stoked, surrounding him with leaps and bounds like the teammates of the try scorer. Ever the sportsman, in a move worthy of a Fair Play Award, Daniel walked over to Liam to shake hands, rounding off a mammoth campaign season.
Liam told Critic Te Ārohi the next day that he was incredibly proud of how close he’d become to a second term as President. “I’ll pat myself on the back and say I ran my favourite of all my campaigns at OUSA – one that reached students, challenged them to demand more from their Executive and OUSA, and called them to think bigger,” he said. “This year has been a trial by fire: fronting scandal after scandal, fighting through controversy after controversy, and holding together a team that could have splintered at any moment.”
The soon to be outgoing President wished the next cohort of Execcies well. “I’m proud that next year’s Executive reflects the values and principles that make our association great,” he said. While the close result ultimately did not fall in his favour, his passion for OUSA has not been dampened, it seems. “I’ll still be around and no matter what this year has thrown at me, I still love Otago and OUSA. Kia kaha, and thank you to everyone that believed in me and the vision.”
The victorious Daniel told Critic that he is “super stoked with the yesterday's [sic] result” (bit dusty there, mate). “Huge credit to all the candidates for putting themselves out there, everyone ran great campaigns [...] I can't wait to get stuck in and try to make a difference for Otago students. 2026 is going to be an awesome year.” For now, though, he said, “I'm so glad the campaign is finally over.” Hilariously, Daniel’s back-up plan in the event he lost, an exchange to Poland, has now been cancelled in the wake of his victory.
Beyond the tight Presidential race, nine other Executive members were also elected. In the Administrative Vice President race, under the single transferrable vote system, Tate Agnew was knocked out in the first round with 17.99% of the votes. Second choice votes were transferred to Sam Smith-Soppet and Kamesha Jones, prevailing in Kamesha securing 1,373 votes to Sam’s 889 – a 60.70% victory, scoring her the second-in-command role. While Daniel has been elected, he will not be working with his running-mate Sam.
FSO was won by Troy Gibbons, with 1,532 votes to Dominic’s 600. The other 20-hour Executive roles – Academic, and Welfare and Equity – were won respectively by Hansini Wijekoon and Rihana Warsame. Both scored a 62% share of the votes in their races. Afterwards, Rihana’s sole opponent for Welfare and Equity, Liam Melvin, quickly rebranded his campaign account on Instagram to @disabledrep4ousa – pushing to get disabled students a seat on the Executive (as voted in support by 54.9% of students in the semester one referendum).
For the ten hour roles, Zoe Eckhoff won the biggest majority (of the contested roles) with a 74.47% majority for Residential Representative. In a three-way race, Flynn Nisbett scored a razor-thin 50.8% majority, snagging the role of Political Representative over Harry Almey and Fergus Parks. Clubs and Societies Representative was won by Ella Mary Sangster, with 55.79% of the votes. The two uncontested roles, Postgraduate and International Student’s Representative, both beat out the no-confidence votes, going to Fergus Parks and Irfaan Ariffin respectively.
Elections for Te Rōpū Māori (TRM) were also held alongside the OUSA elections, where all the roles were uncontested. Tumuaki Takirua (Co-Presidents) sit alongside the OUSA Executive as ‘ex-officio’ members, with Sami Harrison and Jarna Flintoff taking on the role. Kaiwhakahaere Kaupapa (Events Officer) for 2026 will be Dannis Kristel, while Brady Simeon is the new Kaipāpāho Matua (Communications Officer). Rounding out the TRM elections for 2026 is Jacqueline Nankkivell as Āpiha Mātauranga (Education Officer) and Maioha Anae for Āpiha Ahurea (Cultural Officer). All TRM candidates were successful in beating their sole opponent: the no confidence vote.
As the dust settles on the election, the 2026 Executive can leverage increased student engagement to begin their work advocating for the tauira of Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. Congratulations to all candidates for their hard work campaigning. And to the successful ones, Critic Te Ārohi will be watching next year.
*Please note that these are the provisional results, subject to change following the Returning Officer’s election report.