Boris Johnson has been re-elected as Mayor of London after a closely fought campaign against Ken Livingston – winning with a total of: 1,054,811 votes to Livingston’s 992,773.
1st Preference Votes:
- Boris Johnson: 971931
- Ken Livingston: 889918
2nd Preference Votes:
- Boris Johnson: 82880 (Total: 1054811 = 51.5%)
- Ken Livingston: 102855 (Total: 992273 = 48.5%)
Following a 6 hour delay, we finally found out that Boris Johnson had won by a 3% majority. This news was greeted with some sense of shock, but with an overruling sense of acceptance as Johnson was expected to win, but not by this small of a margin.
The results had to be stretched onto the second preference as no candidate managed to pass the 50% mark in the first preference votes.
Boris Johnson’s victory comes at an abysmal time for the Conservatives however, as they’ve been trumped by Labour in many local council elections.
The Lib Dems had a poor night in the London Mayoral election as their candidate Brian Paddick fell into 4th place, relinquishing 3rd to the Green Party’s Jenny Jones.
Independent candidate Siobhan Benita placed fifth, despite a running strong early on.
The turnout for this year’s London election was a measly 38%, down a considerable 6.8% from when the last Mayoral Election in 2008 took place.
UKIP probably had the worst night of them all, this is due to an administrative error which saw them listed on the ballot as “Fresh Choice for London,” rather than UKIP.
Overall, it’s a slim victory for Boris Johnson; but one he’ll cherish as he was prepared to leave City Hall. London is set to be under his command for another 4 years, and his policies look set to continue.
Post by: Toby Jagmohan. Founder.
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