Lily Byrne (she/her) has been elected Sheffield Students’ Union President, after seven rounds of vote counting.
Speaking on stage on results night, she said: “I cannot say thank you enough to everybody, everyone who ran with me as a team. I’m so overwhelmed!
“I want to continue on all of Liam’s hard work. Thank you to all of the other candidates.”
It was a comeback victory for Lily, closing a 328-vote deficit to Ali Khan after the first-place ballots were counted.
After the final round of counting, Lily beat the second-place candidate by 457 votes.
Her manifesto focused on financial empowerment, community and the environment, with pledges to improve access to mental health services, provide reward schemes for eco-friendly commuting, and educate students on renter’s rights, pensions, taxes, and mortgages.
Lily is a second-year Biology student, Treasurer for the Animal and Plant Society, and deputy editor for the Biology Society magazine, and will be taking a year out for the role.
She teaches art in primary schools in Sheffield part-time, and worked as an art teacher in the US over the summer.
She will take over from outgoing president Liam Hand when his term finishes at the end of June.