The voter turnout seems to have increased compared with the 2004 election. As expected, nobody got more than 50% of the vote on the 1st Preference count, so 2nd Preference votes, so heavily promoted with dubious promises and deals between the minor parties were important, but did not affect the final result.
| Name | 1st Preference | 1st Preference Percentage of the electorate | 2nd Preference | Total | Total Percentage of the electorate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boris Johnson | 1,043,761 | 19.26% | 124,977 | 1,168,738 | 21.56% |
| Ken Livingstone | 893,877 | 16.49% | 135,089 | 1,028,966 | 18.99% |
The potential 2008 electorate was 5,419,913, and the turnout was 45.33%, so any claims, by any of these politicians to somehow represent all of London, or even a majority of Londoners, is misleading - getting the votes of around 20% of the electorate means that around 80% i.e. 4 out of 5 people did not vote for you.
See the official results - N.B. the current figures of "0" in the 2nd Preference votes columns, must surely be wrong.
Another four years in power of authoritarian, arrogant Ken Livingstone and his dubious political cronies would have been insufferable.
Boris Johnson is an intelligent man, but whether he becomes an effective Mayor of London, within the deliberate constraints on his powers which the Labour Government has inflicted on the position, we shall simply have to wait and see.
This blog intends to continue to comment on and criticise, if necessary, the actions or inactions of the new Mayor and the Greater London Assembly.
Election Expenses
Given that both Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone are reported as having raised much more money than the £400,000 election spending limit, it will be worth examining the Election Expenses breakdowns in detail when these are published.
Have the excess funds funds simply been confiscated by the Conservative and Labour party central fund raising machines ? Is this a loophole in say, the rules on foreign based donations to political parties ?
Greater London Assembly
The GLA election results show almost no changes, despite the increased turnout:
| Party | Seats | Gain/Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative Party | 11 | +2 |
| The Labour Party | 8 | +1 |
| Liberal Democrats | 3 | -2 |
| Green Party | 2 | 0 |
| British National Party | 1 | +1 |
The mainstream political parties seem to have utterly failed in their attempts to prevent the odious "BNP" from getting a seat on the Assembly, but a least the differently odious "Respect" George Galloway did not get in, as some feared.
The UK Independence Party lost both of its London wide list Assembly seats, and now have no seats at all.
The Liberal Democrats also lost two of their London wide list Assembly seats, but they retain three seats.
