Mayor of London

The Mayor of London is elected mayor of London, England. He is the executive part of the Greater London Authority formed from it and the particular to its control London Assembly. Its tasks include the preparation of the budget and the strategic planning of some government tasks in the area of Greater London. These include, inter alia, transport, police, fire, emergency services and economic development. The Office of the Mayor of London is not to be confused with that of the Lord Mayor of London; the latter title has grown historically and today has only ceremonial significance.

Basis of this office is the Greater London Authority Act 1999, which held the British Parliament after a on 7 May 1998 in the future application, with a low turnout of 34.1%, with an approval rating of 72 % favorable referendum was passed.

The Mayor of London is elected every four years by direct popular vote. London played a pioneering role in this regard, other cities in the UK have since followed suit.

Election procedures

Who wants to stand as a candidate for mayor, you must first deposit £ 10,000 ( almost 15,000 € ) as a deposit. Only candidates who receive more than 5% of the total votes, get the money back.

The selection is made according to the Supplementary Vote. In this case, each voter has ever ( hereinafter referred to as first vote and the second vote, but not to be confused with the first and second vote in the German election law) a vote for a first and second preference. First, the first votes will be counted. Achieved this is not a candidate for more than half of the votes, all candidates will be eliminated except for the top two. For the eliminated candidates, the second vote will be evaluated and, if the second vote is for one of the two remaining candidates, these count towards its first votes. Is elected the candidate who achieves the highest sum of the first and second votes.

As customary in runoff systems, there is also the problem of negative voting weight. The election procedure is similar to the instant runoff voting, but uses only two preferences, which can cause unlike IRV some votes cast at the end no longer be counted: All ballots in which first and second preferences were eliminated, fall out of the count, while they were evaluated during IRV with other preferences. So when choosing 2012 346.626 first votes have been eliminated, but there were only 185 235 second votes in the final one.

2000 election

The first election took place on 4 May 2000 and was won by Ken Livingstone. His election was highly controversial. After he was not nominated by the Labour Party, he ran as an independent and was expelled from the party. The Conservative Party had to withdraw its candidate Jeffrey Archer after he was indicted for perjury (and later convicted ).

2004 election

In the second round of voting on 10 June 2004 Livingstone was re-elected, this time as the official Labour candidate.

Election 2008

In the third election on 1 May 2008, the Conservative Boris Johnson took over from the candidates for a further term Livingstone.

Election 2012

In the fourth election on 3 May 2012 incumbent Boris Johnson was elected for a further term of office.

AFirst preference vote: First elected candidate in the vote.

BSecond preference vote: Second preference in the poll as a replacement if the candidate leaves after a Zählrunde own.