On Feb. 25, Jozef Gherman and Juan Salazar were elected student body president and vice president in the runoff election.
Gherman’s ticket received 386 votes, accounting for 58.48 percent of the total votes, while Ziya Kardas and Kyle Uber received 274 votes at 41.52 percent. 660 students voted.
In order to win, one ticket had to receive more than 50 percent of the votes.
Gherman told the Crow’s Nest that campaigning was intense for everybody involved. He said he and his team are already working toward fulfilling campaign promises, including the improvement of veteran services at USF St. Petersburg. Gherman has a detailed plan mapped out for his first day in office, he said.
“I know we can do more to assist those who serve our country. I want to find out what needs to be done immediately to get their services working in the most efficient way,” he said.
Gherman said trust between the student body and elected officials must be present moving forward. He intends to treat this new position as a full-time job.
“Seeing as we campaigned on experience and vision, we’d like to put both to work right away by assembling an administration with the best fit people in this university who will help us hit the ground running, and realize the collective vision of the students,” said Gherman.
There was an increase in voter turnout. 665 students voted in last year’s general election and 666 voted in this year’s.
The Gherman/Salazar ticket received the highest number of votes for a single candidate in Student Government history with 386 votes in the runoff election.
