Election campaigns to the Cambridge Union’s Lent 2026 standing committee are underway, in yet another hotly contested race.

This year of elections is more competitive than those of previous years, with eight candidates competing for five roles in Easter and Lent 2025. By contrast, all three elections held in 2024 had only one contested position.

Elections for the Union’s standing committee are held two terms before the successful candidates will take up their positions. The roles of president, speaker’s officer and equalities officer are all contested by two candidates. The candidates for debate officer and social events officer are each running unopposed.

Running for President are Chris Lorde and Jack Peters. Lorde narrowly lost the previous election for the Michaelmas 2025 Presidency by 21 votes against Ivan Alexei Ampiah. They are running on a platform of increased outreach, growing corporate sponsorships, and promises to deliver a “termcard with gender parity”.

Peters, the current chair of the Cambridge University Liberal Association, proposes an increased focus on science and technological events, including a debate on AI, and “putting quality over quantity”. Peters also suggests creating a year-long Welfare role to make it “more accessible for members”.

Freddie Bishop and Joe Hesketh are running for the role of Speaker’s Officer. Bishop proposes “Making more of an effort to challenge problematic or controversial viewpoints”. They have also suggested “Jubilee style Speaker events” to allow students to challenge intellectuals, citing the “success of the concept during the Charlie Kirk event”.

Hesketh is campaigning on a platform of increasing the range of speakers; “not just those with titles, but those with reach”. He has also suggested creating a Forum where Union members would write “short article-style responses to speaker events,” which he hopes will allow members to “gain a voice beyond the floor speeches (and camfess)”.

Haris Khan is one of two students running for the position of Equalities officer. He is campaigning on a programme of increased outreach events for state schools, and more collaborations with cultural societies.

Also running for the Equalities role is Jaipreet Lully, who aims to “continue Thursday Equalities debates” and to have topics which “encompass diverse cultural and political concepts, engaging cross-cultural debate”.

Pollyanna Greene-Wright is running for the uncontested position of Debates Officer. Her manifesto argues that “Debates need to broaden its horizons” and says that “we need more discussion of left wing politics, not just motions on Trump and Reform.” She is endorsed by committee members of the Cambridge University Labour Society, Cambridge University Liberal Association, and Cambridge University Conservative Association.

Another uncontested role is for the Social Events Officer. In his manifesto, Bernhard Beran promises a valentines mixer, carnival Craze, and “Events that make you forget exams ever existed”.

Current Cambridge Union President Anoushka Kale said that "This promises to be an exciting and fruitful election period, with excellent candidates across the board. We are pleased to see so many roles are contested again as they were in the previous election, a signal that the Union is encouraging involvement and contribution by its members to Standing Committee." 

Voting will take place between the 16th and 18th of June by secret ballot. All voting will be in person at the Cambridge Union building.