Khushboo Bhatia and Ali Zaidi won the student body President and Vice President elections for the Fall 2015-Spring 2016 academic year.

On stage at the JC Atrium, Bhatia and Zaidi thanked many people who helped them with their campaign. One person they thanked is the current student body President, Phil Abbruscato.

“Shout out to Phil for being a great mentor,” Bhatia said.

“Khushboo and Ali are going to be extraordinary student body presidents and vice presidents,” Abbruscato said. “Having worked them, I’ve worked with Khushboo for the past three years and Ali for the past two, I couldn’t be more proud of the work they’ve done in the organization [student government] so far and I look forward to things to come.”

After the annoucement, Zaidi said they feel “overwhelmed” and Bhatia described finding out the news as being “humbled.”

Zaidi also said they hope to make Progress for Mason and Progress for Students, their campaign slogan, to happen in the coming year.

According to the Mason student government website, 2,459 students in total voted for more than 40 candidates. The winning pair got 790 votes and the runner-ups, Pete Kleine and Jordan Wilson, got 636 votes. 528 votes were casted for Chandler Jenkins and Obum Egolum and Laura Freeman and Taylor Sprague tallied with 418 votes.

Bhatia, Zaidi and the 30 newly elected senators will be sworn in on April 30 at Merten Hall, room 1201 at 4:30 p.m.

“To be elected by the student body, it means something,” Bhatia said. “So we’re really excited for the opportunity from the people who believed in us to make them proud and hopefully show them that they picked the right people for the job.”

Photo Credit: Bhatia and Zaidi Facebook page.