By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer
Vaibhav Babbar, who also goes by Vee, spoke with The Peak after his lingering concerns about the election were brought to the paper’s attention by an anonymous source.
Babbar, who served as one of the associate vice-presidents of events and student affairs during the 2024/25 term, ran in this year’s election cycle but was not elected by a margin of 88 votes. He said issues around his platform commenced before the election took place. At the candidate debate, his nickname was incorrectly spelled “Veer.” At this point in the election, the mistake “was fine because I reached out to [the SFSS] and they apologized,” he said. “But then they did the same thing again in the polling ballot itself. It was supposed to be ‘Vaibhav,’ and they did ‘Viabhav,’” with the “I” and “A” switched.
“I sent them an email regarding this, and the email was ignored, and after the election, I raised concerns about this, and they just apologized,” Babbar said. “But obviously, you need to fix that right away while the election is going on, not after elections.” He also noted some of his friends did not recognize his name on the ballot. When he explained his friends’ confusion to the SFSS, they said Babbar’s friends should have recognized him as there was only one candidate beginning with a V.
“It didn’t feel like an acknowledgement of their mistake. It just felt like they’re trying to defend their position,” he said.
“It’s a big election, it’s a major university election in BC and it’s the whole student society — not a club, not a union — the whole student society.” — Vaibhav (Vee) Babbar, 2025/26 candidate
Babbar also raised concerns about the voting system used for the election, a topic The Peak reported on earlier this year. While individuals were able to cast more than one vote by switching browsers or using incognito mode, The Peak previously reported that “the election system has safeguards in place to ensure that each student gets only one counted vote,” according to the SFSS and the Independent Electoral Commission.
When Babbar asked for proof that illegitimate votes had been removed, the SFSS told him they could not release the raw, unfiltered polling data.
The Peak reached out to the Independent Electoral Commission for additional comment, but did not hear back by the publication deadline. SFSS also informed The Peak that they were unable to comment at the time of the article.
At the time this piece was published, the SFSS has no plans to run a re-election.
