Updated: April 17, 2015 at 2:02 a.m.

Aysha Seedat said she woke up Thursday morning and prayed. She was hoping the day would go well.

It did.

Seedat was elected Student Association president for the 59th Session after a total of 3,426 votes, or 24.1 percent, were cast by the Syracuse University student body. Write-in candidate AJ Abell came in second place, followed by write-in candidates Safet Mesanovic, Tatiana Cadet and Jesse Nichols, Seedat said. A complete breakdown of the voting was not yet available. Seedat will serve as president for the 2015-16 academic year.

Seedat received 1,903 votes, or about 55 percent of the vote. The next closest candidate was Abell, who received 434 votes, an SA official said.

Seedat received a phone call around 12:45 a.m. Friday from Janine Bogris, vice chair of elections for SA, who thanked her for running a clean campaign and then notified Seedat and her running mate, Jane Hong, that they had been elected. Between the 15 seconds when Bogris called and when the two were informed of their election, the room of about 20 people, including Seedat and Hong, were silent, anxiously awaiting the verdict.

“Those few seconds when she was talking killed me,” Hong said. “I was like alright, alright, alright let’s go.”

After being told of their victory, screaming and hugging ensued. Seedat embraced supporters and then her and Hong made their way to the kitchen of the house where campaign members gathered to relish the moment. Current SA President Boris Gresely stopped by the house at which the party was held for a few minutes to congratulate Seedat.

Following about a 15-minute celebration in the house on the 800 block of Ackerman Avenue, supporters demolished a television and set of fireworks to show their joy.

The 24.1 voter turnout falls short of the 31 percent turnout record set last year.

Seedat, a junior policy studies major, and Hong, a junior broadcast and digital journalism major, ran on a platform of “Safety and Support.” Seedat is currently the director of student life for SA.

The two declared their run on Feb. 25 and since then have “knocked on every door possible.” Seedat and Hong were out campaigning until midnight, when polls closed, and continued to get support until that time.

“Up until the last minute we were hearing students say, ‘We want you to win and we want to be able to help you out,’” Hong said.

Seedat and Hong were the only two candidates officially on the ballot, but went up against four write-in campaigns.

“It was terrible,” Seedat said of campaigning against the four write-in candidates. “These write-in candidates had no rules that they had to follow.”

She added that while the write-in candidates “came out of the blue,” she wants them to get involved with SA.

Despite the challenge of facing write-in candidates, Seedat said the campaign allowed her the opportunity to get a better understanding of the student body and problems other students face.

She cited an example of a student who has their car parked in the Booth Garage but is forced to move it for SU sporting events and added that seeing the support from other students and the desire to solve problems from those students was one of her favorite moments of the campaign.

For Seedat, she felt “blessed, ecstatic and really, really thankful.”

Said Seedat: “We’ve really tried to represent the student body in our experiences that we’ve had and through talking with students over the course of the campaign.”

Other SA election votes:

—Phil Kramer was elected SA comptroller and a referendum regarding the Federalization Act and student approval of the SU chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group both passed.

—The NYPIRG referendum was to gauge whether or not the organization had the support of the student body and the payment of a $3 student fee.

—The Federalization Act, which was passed by SA in February, also passed in the vote by the student body. The act includes provisions such as the creation of the Special Committee on the Budget, the merged Student Affairs Committee and the redefining of the Student Engagement Committee.

Published on April 17, 2015 at 1:29 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306