USF SG presidential election unofficial results: Jadhav, Esmeraldi win
USF students have elected Sumit Jadhav and Caio Esmeraldi to be the next student body president and vice president, according to unofficial election results released on Friday.
Jadhav and Esmeraldi received a total of 1,257 votes, while runners-up Brayden Jahn and Jamar Blaze Smith received 994 votes and Bita Aliakbarzdeh and Alyssa Hubbard received 731 votes.
“I can’t wait to hit the ground running and work to create a stronger, more vibrant campus community,” Jadhav said in a statement with The Oracle.
The Oracle obtained vote counts and results through a Student Government Teams meeting held on Friday. However, these results aren’t set in stone.
Dora Rodriguez, the Election Rules Commission Supervisor of Elections, said the results are subject to change due to grievances about the election.
Rodriguez did not elaborate on what the grievances were.
Related: Meet the competition for USF’s student government presidential race
While Jadhav has been elected student body president, he is under investigation as the current vice president for signing a contract to switch positions with student body president Suryakanth Gottipati.
A total of 2,982 students voted for presidential candidates this year, which is 6% of USF’s student population. USF has a total of 49,738 currently enrolled students, according to the 2024-2025 FactBook.
Jadhav and Esmeraldi look to serve, represent and empower students, according to the ticket’s Instagram page.
The winning ticket ran under the platform “BOLD,” which stands for Bulls first, Opportunity, Legacy and Diversity, according to their Instagram page.
Each USF campus also elected its own governor, lieutenant governor, senators and campus council members.
Related: Free speech, funding among topics discussed at USF student government gubernatorial debate
The Sarasota-Manatee campus elected Andre Aquino and Dennis Kukharenko as governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, with a total of 32 votes.
For the St. Pete campus, current governors Elise Prophete and Victoria Drews were reelected with 141 votes.
However, the Tampa campus governor and lieutenant governor have not been elected yet.
Emma Goodwin and Ethan Walsh were the top candidates in the governor and lieutenant Governor election with 1,151 votes, while Eduardo Manke and Dhanvanth Rayulu Ramayanam got second place with 1,089 votes.
Associate Director of SG Advising Jennifer Bielen said a runoff election is needed because Goodwin and Walsh won by less than 5%.
Related: Meet USF Tampa’s SG gubernatorial candidates
Voting for the gubernatorial runoff will start Tuesday and run through Wednesday.
Students can vote online or in-person from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at polling stations at the Marshall Student Center and outside Cooper Hall.
For the senate, 31 students were elected to represent the Tampa campus, five for the St. Pete campus and four for the Sarasota-Manatee campus.
For the campus council, 12 students will represent the Tampa campus, and both St. Pete and Sarasota-Manatee campus will have nine members each.
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