In Alexandra Palace, Excel and Olympia, at 08:00, started the outing in the elections for the London mayor and London Assembly. Sadiq Khan is leading in the London mayoral elections as vote-counting continues.
12candidates are running to be the third person to hold the post of mayor of London. The results will be announced later and the victor will succeed Boris Johnson. The counting of the votes at the three centers in the capital is being done electronically.
The new mayor will hold the largest personal mandate for any political office in the UK and will control over four major policy areas in London, which includes transport, policing, environment and housing and planning.
Mayor policies must be under the supervision of London Assembly. The assembly has to be consulted as well over the Greater London Authority budget.
On the elections, voters chose first and second preferences for mayor, and London Assembly member for the area and another member for the city.
Between 30-53% of votes verified, the Conservatives are behind in four off six London Assembly seats they are currently holding, reported William Wearmouth, BBC political analyst.
According to the polls before Thursday’s election, Khan would triumph in the race to run London, a city of 8.2 million people.
About the leading candidates
Labour Party’s Sadiq Khan and Conservative Zac Goldsmith, leading candidates in Thursday’s elections, boast strong connections to the Islamic republic, according to the reports. Khan calls himself a “proud feminist”. Before being elected to the British Parliament, Khan was a human-rights lawyer.
The rival candidate, Goldsmith, is the younger brother of Jemima Goldsmith, the British heiress who “converted to Islam” to marry Pakistani cricket legend and politician Imran Khan. His father was a Jewish billionaire who was a French member of the European Parliament and an anti-EU British lawmaker.
Goldsmith has been focusing during the last four weeks on Khan’s past career as a human-rights lawyer and has been accusing him of giving “platform, oxygen and cover” to extremists.
On the other hand, Khan promised he will be “the British Muslim who takes the fight to the extremists”, and accused Goldsmith of running a “nasty, dog-whistling campaign.”
Source: NBC News