Rally For Medium Reform (clockwise from top-left): Tom Watson MP, Hugh Grant, Jacqui Hanes, Richard Peppiatt, Mary-Ellen Field, Owen Jones Photos: Gao Xiwei

Anti-Murdoch campaigners are campaigning for a new legal and regulatory media landscape after Hackgate, and outlined their ideas in a Rally for Media Reform at Westminster Central Hall on Friday May 17.

Across town from News International’s Wapping base, the rally was organised by the Coordinating Committee for Media Reform and the Hacked Off campaign. A host of speakers were given five minutes each to put forward proposals to address the problems in the British media.

Sharing the platform among others were Labour and Conservative MPs Tom Watson and Peter Bottomley, ex Daily Star Reporter Richard Peppiatt and phone hacking victims Mary-Ellen Field, former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames and actor Hugh Grant.

Watson and Grant have been two of the most vociferous opponents of News International during both the Leveson Enquiry and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearings on phone hacking. In his speech, Grant lambasted both police and press regulation failings. Watson called on the government to drive forward press changes but told the audience: “You are the start of a movement we have to build in the country to make sure once and for all we get proper and comprehensive media reform”

 Video: Olga Chwilowicz

Giving evidence to the Leveson Enquiry into press culture and ethics this morning, Watson said “about a dozen” MPs told him they had been unfairly targeted by the press. Also giving evidence today was former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who said Scotland Yard were “lethargic” in their response to phone hacking in 2009. The Labour MP said that parliament should set up a regulatory system, like they do with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The reforms proposed by the Coordinating Committee for Media Reform focus on the need for diversity in the press, support for journalists and a new economic model based on levies from broadcasters, internet companies and mobile phone operators.

They demand that any company owning over 15 per cent of one media audience must have governance structures that are accountable to the public and they must provide public interest journalism. They also propose a News Publishing Commission to replace the Press Complaints Commission. As well as giving a statutory right of reply and complaints tribunal, the new body would have a conscience clause to deter journalists from unethical dealings.

A lack of diversity within the media was highlighted by the first speaker, Owen Jones, author of ‘Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class’. He said: ” Much of the media, especially national media, is becoming a closed shop for the professional middle class. The Sutton Trust  a few years ago did a study, where they looked at the top 100 journalists in this country, over half were privately educated. Just one in ten went to a comp.”

Owen said that the unpaid internship is a national scandal, asking: ” If you’re an aspiring working class journalist from Glasgow or Manchester, how can you hope to live  in London, one of the most expensive cities on earth for free? “. He said he hoped this campaign could build a media which is free from dominance and representative of all society.

After the rally, East London Lines spoke to members of the audience about what they had heard:

Click here to watch the Rally for Media Reform in full.

Ten years as the directly elected Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock. Photo: Delores William

The Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, has just celebrated ten years as Lewisham’s first directly elected mayor. In an interview with East London Lines, he says “that, of course, there have been difficult days but the good far outweigh the bad.”

Looking back on his time in office, the formation of the Young Mayor of Lewisham, was one of his highlights. The scheme started eight years ago and gives young people a chance to get involved with local politics and make decisions on issues that affect their area.

Bullock is proud of the scheme, and is still in touch with the first young mayor, Manny Hawks 2004-5, and last year’s young mayor, Kieran Lang 2011-12,  is now studying at university.

Lewisham was the first mayoral authority to hold elections for a Youth Mayor and the initiative has won national acclaim.

Bullock passionately believes that the future of democracy at any level means that it has to engage young people, and the young need to be directly involved.

The challenge of modern local government is that most of the money and power in decision-making  is drawn from the Westminster Parliament, government departments and European Union institutions.

It is easily forgotten that it was local councils that pioneered sanitation, health, education, welfare, improved housing, and even votes for women.

Lewisham is one of only three London Boroughs with a directly elected Mayor. There are 16 in total across the country.

Lewisham’s referendum giving the thumbs up for a directly elected Mayor in 2001 was won by a whisker. A margin of 2% and 908 votes and a turn-out of only 18% of the electorate. Local democracy is continually fighting apathy, complacency, and a perception that in the 21st century it does not make any difference.

Mayor Bullock may be a Knight of the Realm, one of the most widely respected figures in British local government, but longevity in office and any power he wields has left no trace of the pompous or sense of standing on ceremony.

For the interview, he was the usual down-to-earth, “Steve the Mayor”, looking relaxed in his busy office, open-neck shirt, and no self-aggrandizing as the former van driver made good from Redcar, in North Yorkshire so often written in profiles about him.

But he didn’t start out in private road transport. He was driving for the local urban district council. The atmosphere in the Mayor’s office could be described as progressive and busy politeness.

Lewisham Borough Coat of Arms. Its motto means "The Welfare of the People is the first great Law."

There’s work to be done, and it’s not that easy to find the borough’s Coat of Arms, bearing all the pageantry of tradition and history, and a Latin motto “Salus Populi Suprema Lex”, that means the welfare of the people is the first great law.

Mayor Bullock was a policy advisor to Ken Livingstone, in the run up to the 2012 London Mayoral Elections. They are political colleagues going back a long way, and developed the ‘Fare’s Fair’ policy of the former Greater London Council that was challenged in the courts and frustrated by conservative central government.

Labour did well on May 3 this year, but Bullock does not need reminding that its London Mayoral candidate lost spectacularly against the national swing.

When East London Lines asked him why he thought Livingstone had failed he quickly got to the point: “Ken is about 10 years older than the mayor”, and he believes that “he could not get his point across because he is a pensioner.”

The Mayor thinks that Livingstone still has a lot to offer, but sends a warning to other politicians. The challenge is to  ”know when the electorate have had enough of you.”

Despite Livingstone announcing his retirement, Bullock does not think we have seen the last of the former London Mayor.

He says he does not think he needs to learn Livingstone’s lesson yet: “It’s up to my colleagues and the electorate on how long I stay in office.”

Summer riots 2011. Photo: East London Lines

The riots in the summer of 2011 were the worst experience. He had been on holiday and arrived back on the first day of the riots. He believes it’s important that everyone remembers that the majority of rioters  were not just young people. In his words “This was about people who frankly should have known better up to, and including pensioners.”

The disappointment is still clearly there, but so are his heroes of the day. He praised the street cleaners, who get up early most working days. But on the morning after the riots they were up extra early for the clean up; so early in fact that when residents came to help they were thanked and told to go home as the clean-up had already been completed.

Bullock finds the financial cutbacks, and the fierce criticism that he faced over the closure of five libraries a constant disappointment.  He says  that “watching some of the good works  undone after spending the last ten years  building them up was particularly hard.”

Bullock stresses that he “can’t fix the economy of  Europe” but he can try and help Lewisham get through this very difficult time.

Lewisham Library

He praised the communities that have helped keep the local libraries open and  turned them into meeting hubs . Despite the economic woes of the country and the borough, he is still very proud of The Deptford Lounge, and the refurbishment of the swimming pool in Forest Hill.

Bullock has not found it easy getting them updated, but feels his persistence and tenacity has seen the pools renovation come to fruition.  The pool in  Forest Hill has kept its Victorian frontage, and inside it has been updated to a state of the art building which includes a café, gym and space for other community events.

The Mayor is getting excited about the upcoming celebrations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee happening across the borough. There have been over sixty applications for street parties and he believes that Lewisham residents have topped all other boroughs in enthusiasm and community solidarity. He feels  proud that as a community in times of trouble they are able to unite together for such celebrations.

Lewisham- a population of about 250,000 and a Mayor determined to improve its housing provision.

As for crime in the area, figures are down. The Mayor is in full support of Operation Trilogy, a Metropolitan Police led initiative aimed at gang distruption. Operation Trilogy provides a proactive response to tackling gun and drug related criminality.

He feels that the past ten years have shown him to be a good mayor, but he also accepts that the next ten years will hold fresh and new challenges for him.

At the end of the interview he emphasized that the biggest challenge remains providing more homes for people living in the borough. There is a critical shortage exacerbated by rent inflation, and the failure of the banking system and private housing market to make home ownership a reality for people on low and middle incomes.

Lewisham Mayor Steve Bullock tells us his predictions for 2012

Lewisham’s eighth Young Mayor is revealed

Five public libraries axed in council cuts meeting

“The end of local government as we know it” says Mayor, as Lewisham cuts package approved

Mayor deeply concerned about youth killings

Kosru Uddin. Photo: Tower Hamlets Labour Party

Kosru Uddin, the Labour councillor for Mile End east,  was arrested by police
late Wednesday night after a row broke out at a Tower Hamlets council meeting. Uddin was arrested on suspicion of making “threats to kill” independent cabinet member Rania Khan.

The council were holding an emergency debate, in an attempt to fill the position of chief executive, which has been vacant for the past eight months. The meeting was closed to both the public and press.

Agenda document for meeting of Tower Hamlets Council disrupted by the arrest of one of its councillors

During this meeting it was reported that Uddin allegedly made threats to kill Khan, and was also involved in an argument with her mother, Lutfa Khan, who is also a councillor.

It was reported that three other councillors attempted to restrain Uddin by pinning him to the wall, before he was taken out of the chamber in front of the stunned councillors.

It was reported that one of the councillors said “He seemed extremely angry. His eyes appeared wild. I’ve never seen anything like that. It was shocking.”

The incident has received London regional and national media coverage.

But it was the local East London Advertiser that broke the story.

Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Mulberry Place E14. Photo: Tower Hamlets Council

Council security cleared the lobby area of the council of public and press, who had been attending the previous meeting which was open to the public.

A spokewomen for the council said, ‘The council can confirm that there was an incident at the council chamber last night. We fully support the police with their investigations, as we always look to promote the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour from all those associated with the council.’

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement ‘Police in Tower Hamlets have arrested a 45-year-old man on suspicion of threats to kill. The arrest is in relation to an incident that occurred at a meeting at the town hall at approximately 11.35pm.’

Uddin has now been released on bail pending further inquiries, and there have been no charges made to date.

Bow Quarter, possible Olympic missile site. Photo: Alex Bishop

Residents held a public meeting on Friday evening to discuss plans to station High Velocity Missiles on a housing block in Bow. Part of the government’s defence strategy for the Olympic Games announced last week, they have been met with some resistance.

Bow Quarter is one of six sites around London which the Ministry of Defence have been given access to as part of the nine day security exercise which began on Thursday.  At a public demonstration of the weapons on Blackheath, another proposed missile location, Major David Joyce from 16 Artillery regiment said the plans were ‘not set in stone’.

Around 100 people gathered at St Paul’s church near Roman Road to hear speeches from Brian Whelan, the journalist and soon-to-be-former resident of Bow Quarter who first spoke out publicly against the plans. Also making addresses were Tower Hamlets Councillor Rania Khan, local resident and vice-chair of Stop the War Coalition Chris Nineham, and Joanna Fleck of law firm Tuckers who are assisting Whelan with possible legal action.

Opening proceedings, Chris Nineham commented that the lack of consultation by the MoD at Bow Quarter was “quite surreal”, and informed the audience that even Jane’s Defense Weekly had judged the type of missiles installed at the site to be “badly affected by weather”. “Surely”, added Mr Nineham, “the MoD have already got systems set in place [for the prevention of terrorism during the Olympics] what we’re seeing now is bravado.”

No Missiles in East London Poster. Image: Facebook

An exhausted-looking Whelan joked that although “this hasn’t been the hardest story I’ve ever had, it has been the biggest one that’s landed on top of me”. He and his partner’s alleged eviction from his home as a result of his opposition to the missile plans drew sympathy from the crowd, one audience member called it “intimidation.”

Whelan commented on the military personnel stationed on the roof of his building,  described in an MoD leaflet distributed to residents as “fully trained, professional soldiers.”  ”They look younger than me, and I’m not yet 30″, said Mr Whelan. “Surely you run a test like the real thing? It’s a disgrace.”

Solicitor Joanna Fleck spoke of the possible legal avenues open to campaigners, while local councillor Rania Khan called on the MoD to “scrap their plans.”

Hackney resident Emma Sangster of anti-militarisation organisation Forces Watch spoke to EastLondonLines about why she attended the meeting: “The Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 were the most militarised Olympics to date. When a major sports event gets militarised the other cities will follow, but I just can’t see what it achieves. If weapons were deployed, there would be chaos.”

The consensus was that this is only the beginning of ongoing resistance, and Mr Nineham called on anyone who could to meet at Bow Quarter on Saturday 5 May at 10am to voice their concerns with MoD officials who would reportedly be answering questions from local residents. There are also plans to meet again at St Paul’s on Wednesday 9 May at 6.30pm for a follow-up meeting. EastLondonLines will post more on this story as it develops.

Reaction to the MoD’s proposals has not been completely negative. Hear from Blackheath residents who take the view that a security deterrent is necessary for the Olympics in the EastLondonLines Weekly: Missile Special.

Pic: Steven Ren

EastLondonLines live-blogged the counting of the votes in the elections for London’s Mayor and the Greater London Assembly. See below for a summary of the night.

• Boris Johnson was re-elected as Mayor of London for a second term with a margin of 62,538 over Ken Livingstone – 51.5 per cent for Boris and 48.5 per cent for Ken.
• Green Party’s Jenny Jones came third, and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick came fourth.
• A closer race than expected was delayed by a recount at Brent & Harrow caused by problems with damaged ballots.
• Independent Siobhan Benita came fifth, UKIP’s Lawrence Webb came sixth and the BNP’s Carlos Cortiglia came seventh.

LIVE UPDATES:

02:10 That’s it from us at EastLondonLines – we’re signing off. Thanks for reading, and have a good four years.

01:55 The picture at the end of the night shows few surprises in EastLondonLines boroughs. All four candidates keeping their seats, although Steve O’Connell (Conservative) lost 75 per cent of his formerly strong majority in Croydon and Sutton to Labour’s Louisa Woodley. In City and East, North East and Lewisham and Greenwich, Labour retained their hold, keeping John Biggs, Jennette Arnold and Len Duvall in the Assembly. They did so amidst Labour gains across the city, with the party wresting Ealing & Hillingdon and Barnet & Camden from the Conservatives.

But turnout has been disappointing at only 38 per cent: it seems London’s response to tough times is to disengage rather than to rouse with anger. The so-called personality contest did little to provoke a reaction from the electorate. Although Siobhan Benita had some luck in engaging young voters, we don’t know whether this meant much in the long run. Jenny Jones did better than expected, coming in third place, but ultimately Boris’ 3-point margin over Ken is not shocking.

The losers in this election have been Brian Paddick, whose first-preference votes plummeted from 2008, and UKIP – or should we say Fresh Choice for London, as they were mistakenly labelled on ballot papers. This mistake may have sunk an otherwise promising campaign – City and East candidate Steven Woolfe was tipped to join the Assembly as a list candidate.

Otherwise, it has been a day expectations fulfilled across the country, with Labour gains that many predicted. The BNP, however, have been all but wiped out as an electoral force in England, losing all of the seats they contested; their poor showing in the London elections is likewise a welcome one. With Ken Livingstone’s retirement from politics, this marks the end of an era.

01:40 Ross Lydall at the Evening Standard has written that the London Assembly is seeing a split between east and west London. Tories have kept their seats in the south and west – though with difficulty – and Labour have swept the north and east as expected.

The London Assembly was facing an east-west split with the Tories retaining seats in the south and west of the capital on reduced majorities and Labour on course for thumping victories in the north and east.<

Boris Johnson saw his “statutory” deputy mayor Richard Barnes booted out of the assembly after 12 years. He was ousted from Ealing and Hillingdon by Labour’s Onkar Sahota, an Ealing GP. Early Tory successes saw Richard Tracey hold Merton and Wandsworth and James Cleverly hold Bexley and Bromley. But wobbles started when Steve O’Connell’s Conservative majority in Croydon and Sutton was slashed from 42,665 to 9,418.

Labour wins included Len Duvall in Greenwich and Lewisham and Ken Livingstone’s prospective deputy mayor Val Shawcross in Lambeth and Southwark and it was set to claim the scalp of Tory Brian Coleman in Barnet and Camden.

The loss of Mr Barnes and prospect of defeat for Mr Coleman put Mr Johnson close to failing to get the nine assembly members he needs to prevent his budgets for City Hall and the Met being voted down. Insiders said Mr Barnes might have suffered a backlash over the feared closure of Ealing Hospital and the effect  the HS2 train line may have on homes.

The BBC has an interesting map with full results here.

01:25 The London-wide Assembly results are in. With a turnout of 38 per cent, here London Elects reveals them online:

Labour: 12
Conservative: 9
Green: 2
Lib Dems: 2

01:22 Hugo Goodridge spoke to Tessa Jowell before the anouncement of the results and asked if Ken was the right choice for Labour.

01:19 Meanwhile, in the world outside, Labour gained 823 councillors, the Conservatives lost 405, and the Liberal Democrats 336. Their projected national shares of the vote were 38 per cent for Labour, 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 16 per cent for the Lib Dems.

01:00 Boris beat Ken by 51.1 per cent to 48.5 per cent- a margin of three points.

00:48 City Hall editor for the Evening Standard, Pippa Crerar, tweets about Ken’s plans for the future:

Ken confirms that he won’t stand for election again. Whatever you think of him, he’s been true servant of London #londonmayor

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 4, 2012

00:37 We are still awaiting the results for the London-wide Assembly candidates, elected proportionally from across the City. Meanwhile, rival parties are bitterly recriminating each other on Radio 5, arguing over Ken’s campaign with an ardor that the formal cessation of the contest hardly seems to have dampened.

00:33 Compared to 2008, Boris Johnson lost over 70,000 of first-preference votes, but Ken Livingstone also lost a few thousand. The Green Party have gained just over 20,000, while Brian Paddick, along with his party nationally, has suffered, losing over half of his first-preference votes: 236,685 then, 91,774 now.

00:23 Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones’ speeches were shorter. The former policeman thanked Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who appeared on television earlier throughout the day looking fairly despondent, for showing strong leadership during “times of adversity.”

Jenny Jones joked and sparred with the audience, chuffed at third place, and claimed that social justice cannot be untangled from “environmental justice.” Some eyebrows raised at her reference to the 17th-century Levellers – a group of social rebels during the English Civil War who sought to establish democratic principles at a time of absolute monarchy.

00:18  Ken Livingstone gave an emotional and quite moving speech in which he declared that this has been his “last election.”

After congratulating Boris for winning another term, he said: “I want to thank every Londoner who came out and voted for me yesterday after a pretty gruelling campaign. I also want to apologise to all those people.

“I’m truly sorry, I couldn’t pull this victory off. But I am incredibly proud of my team.”

“Boris, this election is no mandate for a fare increase. This is my last election; 41 years ago I won my first election and introduced a free bus pass. I am sincerely sorry to those Londoners who desperately wanted us to win.”

He also took a shot at many media organisations, claiming there had been “bias”. He said: “Some papers depicted this election as a conflict between two men when in reality it was about the lives of 8 million Londoners.”

“London is the most amazing city, but our children must be able to find jobs and homes within it.”

00:14 Here are the highlights of Johnson’s winning speech. Ken’s is soon to come.

Boris: “Thank you everybody. Next time you might do it by hand and speed it up…”

He says the world “will see a city going through a neo-Victorian surge”; “the murder rate is down 25%, the Olympic an Paralympic venues have been completed on time and on budget; we’ve been cutting council tax and getting more police on the street.”

“I will dedicate myself to making sure Londoners, and young Londoners are ready to take the jobs this amazing city creates.” He promises “a good deal from the government” and talks of a “long and gruelling campaign.”

Finally, addressing Ken, he said: “Last time, we stood here, and I said some complimentary things about you – fat lot of good it did me – but I will repeat them. Of all the left wing politicians you are amongst the most creative and original.”

Thanking his campaign team, his family, and the people of London – “the people who voted for me, the people who didn’t, the people who thought about it and then did, the people who thought about it and then didn’t…” – and said that “tonight we will celebrate sensible and cost-effective administration”. He finished with a reference to yesterday’s Star Wars celebrations: “May the fourth be with you.”

00:00 At the strike of midnight, Boris Johnson has been re-elected Mayor of London. Johnson has just concluded his winning speech, which we will have up in a minute.

23:57 The first preference votes are in:

Siobhan Benita (Independent): 83,914
Carlos Cortiglia (British National Party): 28,741
Boris Johnson (Conservative Party): 971,931
Jenny Jones (Green Party): 98,913
Ken Livingstone (Labour Party): 889,918
Brian Paddick (Lib Dems): 91,774
Lawrence Webb (UKIP): 20

Only Boris and Livingstone are through to the second round. With second preference votes:

Johnson: A total of 1,054,811
Livingstone: A total of 992,273.

23:55 And here’s our interview with Independent candidate Siobhan Benita:

Siobahn Bernita interviewed by Hugo Goodridge pic: Heidi Gao

23:47 Here’s our interview with Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, by our reporter Hugo Goodridge.

Jenny Jones interviewed by Hugo Goodridge pic: Heidi Gao

23:42 A tannoy announcement has called agents of candidates to Committee Room 3; it’s now been around 15 minutes since the last ten minute warning. Meanwhile, PoliticsHome has this interesting post on the process by which Ken Livingstone was selected as Labour’s candidate.

23:40 BBC Middle East Producer, Helena Merriman tweets as the results are imminently revealed:

Almost complete silence in the chamber as everyone waits for results. Officials running around in the background #Mayor2012

— helena merriman (@helenamerriman) May 4, 2012

23:33 A tweet from Evening Standard journalist Ross Lydall. The stage is being set for the candidates to appear.

Sources: Boris wins + Jenny comes 3rd, shoving LibDems into 4th. 9 tories on assembly to protect Boris budget. Ukip misses out on seat

— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) May 4, 2012

23:28 Here’s our interview with UKIP Mayoral candidate Lawrence Webb. The BBC is saying 7 minutes until the count.

23:26 The journalists at City Hall are being called down to the count now – it could be ten or fifteen minutes. Then again, we’ve heard that before. Meanwhile, we have interviews with some of the Mayoral candidates coming up.

23:10 As news arrives that the count may not arrive until midnight, reporter Hugo Goodridge sends word from City Hall:

We are still awaiting the result for the London Mayoral election. The atmosphere in the room has changed from excitement to frustration to despair amongst the journalists in the room. The frantic marching around the press room and excited phone calls have become languid; however the opportunity for anybody to relax to not possible, while everyone waits for the announcment we have all been waiting for. All journalists have been informed to await a ten minute warning which will signify the moment to move. For my colleagues, myself and the other journalists in the room this cannot come quick enough.

23:05 Normal service resumes. Sorry for the delay. The Conservatives are now looking likely to win a crucial 9 assembly seats, allowing Johnson to pass his budgets with more ease than he otherwise might. Amending the Mayor’s budget is the only formal power of the London Assembly, and therefore an important battleground for the next four years.

22:41 The EastLondonLines live blogging team is now operating from the 171 bus, and we are still waiting for the count. Our interviews will have to wait; first, the news we’ve missed:

• The BBC reports that none of the candidates have achieved the 50% vote necessary to win on first round votes, and that it now depends on people’s second preferences. We erroneously reported that this had happened earlier; apologies.
• According to London Elects, 13 of the 14 constituencies have returned results. But two batches of votes from Brent and Harrow went to storage without some ballot papers being manually entered (as required when the machines can’t scan them). They’re now being reprocessed.
• Brian Paddick is in fourth place with 85,964 votes, behind Jenny Jones in third place with 94,183.

22:07 It’s 24 hours since polls closed, and we are hearing that another two boxes of uncounted ballots have been discovered and will have to be done by hand. We will have reports and interviews coming in from some of our people at the counts in the next fifteen minutes.

Vote Counting at Alexandra Palace pic: Steven Ren

22:00 According to rumours on Twitter, Livingstone is calling for a recount. But EastLondonLines has spoken to a member of his team, Veronica King, who says that is not true.

21:47 An update from our reporter Olga Casablancas:

“The difference between two main candidates running for Mayor of London title is getting smaller. Nervousness is spreading around the whole of London, with its epicentre in City Hall.  People are not sure about the results, but also the way the votes are counted.  Everyone is still waiting for any sign of final results.”

And some tweets to that effect:

Latest intel from Ally Pally: one whole box of votes still not scanned in.

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 4, 2012

RT @MrJacHart Brent & Harrow delayed because 10,000 postal votes had to be counted by hand due to counting machines ripping ballot papers

— Jules Mattsson (@julesmattsson) May 4, 2012

Lying down, it’s quite comfy… #vote2012 twitter.com/julesmattsson/…

— Jules Mattsson (@julesmattsson) May 4, 2012

21:43 We’ve been marking our posts ’20.xx’ instead of ’21.xx’ for the last forty minutes. Fail.

21:39 London is not the only city to see mayoral action today. EastLondonLines’ Simon Newton says cities across England have been deciding whether they want elected mayors like London – and have, in general, come out against it.

Nine cities in England have rejected proposals to join London in having an elected Mayor. Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Coventry, Leeds and Bradford all said ‘no’ to mayors in referendums today.

Only Bristol chose to endorse the idea while Doncaster voted to keep theirs.

Voter turnout was particularly low, in Nottingham and Manchester it was 24 per cent. Prime Minister David Cameron had precviously said “I want a Boris Johnson in every city.”

How they can say no to all this excitement is beyond us.

21:36 We’re hearing from a source inside the Ken campaign that they pretty much figure Boris has won by this point. With the second preference votes still being counted, however, there’s all to play for. Except play is over, so that metaphor doesn’t work.

21:28 As the waiting game for the Mayoral voting machines continues, experts are offering conflicting views of the likely outcome of the still-pending race. Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, told the BBC that it “still isn’t clear” who will win.

Meanwhile, Michael Thrasher, a psephologist (the science of voting) at the University of Plymouth, told Sky News that it would take “a very spectacular result indeed” for Boris Johnson to lose.

Commentators on the BBC are saying Boris might shift to the right if he takes power – he would be unlikely to win a third term and would have national ambitions as a mainstream Conservative politician.

We are still awaiting results for the London Assembly’s list candidates, elected on a proportional system from across the City. So far it looks like Labour is edging past the Conservatives by a decent margin, with Greens bringing up the rear – but since the vote is proportional, this means that all will probably get some seats.

21:10 In most British elections votes are counted by hand, but because of London’s complex election system – which has three different ballots and three voting systems – we do it electronically using machines (video). The machine calculations are then checked by returning officers from both the constituency and the city as a whole.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t quite gone to plan.

We’ve gone back to old fashioned hand counting of votes here in Ally Pally for #Brent & #harrow #London2012 #labour

— Keith M. O’ Brien (@keithmobrien) May 4, 2012

Guillotined papers are the problem- whoever was operating the machine damaged barcodes. Should be 1hour. #londonmayor #vote2012 #labour

— Keith M. O’ Brien (@keithmobrien) May 4, 2012

21:07 The low turnout across London, while not as drastic as the country, is a scandal. We don’t understand it. We told you all to vote! Wasn’t anyone listening to us?!

21:06 The result ETA has slipped again to 9:30pm. Tweets from Peter Dominiczak of the Evening Standard at City Hall offer a good overview of the situation now:

Turnout figure of 35% is a real shame. Down from 45% in 2008.

— Peter Dominiczak (@peterdominiczak) May 4, 2012

 

Jenny Jones hailing a “fantastic result” (for her obviously, not Boris),

— Peter Dominiczak (@peterdominiczak) May 4, 2012

 

Tomorrow’s Independent front page: Huge Labour gains leave Coalition with indentity crisis polho.me/IQqOgG

— Peter Dominiczak (@peterdominiczak) May 4, 2012

And this helpful suggestion from Jane Merrick:

Can someone at City Hall start shouting out random numbers to put off counters & push result into Sat so we can have the story please? Ta

— Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23) May 4, 2012

20:46 No sooner have all the results come in for the boroughs we cover than we’ve been informed it may be mere minutes (or up to an hour) until the Mayoral result comes in. In case you’ve forgotten what the issues are, Guardian journalist Paul Owen created this handy animation yesterday, which effectively sums things up.

20:40 Jennette Arnold, who’s just won a crushing victory in the North East constituency, spoke to EastLondonLines’ Alex Bishop:

Here’s her acceptance speech:

Jennette Arnold with other North East constituency candidates. pic: Steven Ren

20:38 Our reporter Delores William has been speaking to Pauline Pierce, the ‘Hackney Heroine’ who ran as a Liberal Democrat candidate in Hackney Central today – unsuccessfully, as it transpired.

“Pauline Pearce Libdem candidate is quite philosophical about her failure at the polls, coming in third.

“She said she only put herself up to make things more interesting.  All she cares about is her community, she says, and she appreciates the support of her friends and the people who approach her in the streets of Hackney and ask to kiss her and wish her luck.

“She has no plans to stand as a candidate in the future. What really hurts her the most is the negative comments she has received in the press, She feels that the term ‘Hackney heroine; has been twisted and used against her -  in her own words, “kicking me while I’m down”.  Pierce says she will still fight for her area, and plans to get more involved in community matters.

“She thanked Brian Paddick for his support and says that she liked his views on youth crime in the area and his passion to change things.”

20:33 An interesting tweet from Guardian journalist James Ball:

North East result closes gap between Boris and Ken to 108,000 – I was pretty close! #vote2012

— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) May 4, 2012

20:30 We’ve just had the results in from North East, which includes Hackney, the last undecided EastLondonLines borough:

Jenette Arnold – Labour – 101902
Naomi Newstead – Conservative – 35714
Caroline Allen – Green – 29677
Farooq Qureshi – Lib Dem – 13237
Paul Kevin Wiffen – UKIP – 6623
Ijaz Hayat – Independent –4842

That means the final results for our boroughs are: in North East (Hackney), Labour held their seat, as they did in City and East (Tower Hamlets) and Lewisham and Greenwich. In Croydon, incumbent Steve O’Connell kept his seat too, but his majority – over 40,000 in 2008 – has shrunk to under 10,000 in the face of a strong showing by Labour’s Louisa Woodley, who got 32.98% to O’Connell’s 39.11%.

20:21 Ted Jeory, political editor at the Sunday Express and author of the influential blog, Trial by Jeory, spoke to us about what he thought Labour’s win in Weavers meant:

Labour are hugely relieved to have held it. After a series of losses to Lutfur and having put so much effort in to it, a defeat would have been calamitous.

However, Lutfur will also be fairly chuffed. Abjol Miah stood for Respect but campaigned as a Lutfur independent and did pretty well in a ward they’d normally have little hope in.

The major losers were the Lib Dems. This used to be their ward until two years ago. They were battered.

So where does this leave things? Lutfur will probably want to reshuffle his cabinet to find room for Gulam Robbani. He’s also been courting sole Lib Dem Stephanie Eaton and it would be a huge coup if she accepted a meaningful job.

But some of the Lutfur independents would have to lose out. Some of them might find themselves stabbed in the back.

As for Labour, there’s been some speculation about a challenge to Josh Peck but I haven’t detected any campaigning by or for potential rivals.

But an interesting year ahead, especially if Lutfur’s friend Ken loses.

20:17 The latest figures from the BBC:

JOHNSON – Conservative – 807,065
LIVINGSTONE – Labour – 650,502
JONES – Green – 72,070
PADDICK – Liberal Democrats – 71,543

20:12 Latest from the Twitterverse (you can click the links). Independent candidate Siobhan Benita says she’ll run again, but declares it won’t be for Labour.

Latest #londonmayor results still pointing to a Boris win. More on our live blog bit.ly/Jw5Tca @peterdominiczak

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) May 4, 2012

3 to go Brent & Harrow, Enfield & Haringey, North East. Greens more confident of winning battle for 3rd place.

— adamboulton (@adamboultonSKY) May 4, 2012

#Londonelection: Reaction to Labour retaining City & East london24.com/news/politics/…

— Melissa York (@melyork) May 4, 2012

Siobhan Benita tells me she’ll run again for Mayor in 2016. But says it won’t be for Labour. #londonmayor

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) May 4, 2012

20:00 EastLondonLines’  Holly Powell-Jones has this analysis of the results so far:

It’s now neck and neck with the Greater London Assembly seats, with Labour and Conservative securing 6 seats apiece.

Labour maintained their strongholds in Greenwich & Lewisham, City & East, Lambeth & Southwark, and North East – but also snatched 2 seats from the Conservatives: Barnet & Camden and Ealing & Hillingdon

Conservatives kept their seats in West Central, South West, Merton & Wandsworth, Havering & Redbridge, Croydon & Sutton, and Bexley & Bromley.

19:45 A selection of Tweets from across the boroughs, served up piping hot. Well, they might be cooling off a little. It’s quite busy here in the EastLondonLines news room.

London mayoral election on a knife-edge as polls draw to a close… linkto follow. @peterdominiczak live blog bit.ly/Jw5Tca

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) May 4, 2012

And congratulations to @JennetteArnold and @JoanneMcCartney, who both look to have been re-elected with increased majorities. #labourcoop — Co-operative Party (@CoopParty) May 4, 2012

Boris Johnson still ahead in London mayor race but BBC London’s Tim Donovan says it’s looking very close: bbc.in/IHo2dM#bbcvote2012 — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) May 4, 2012

Very tight for Lib Dems. Will not get 2nd GLA list seat if UKIP pass 5%. And UKIP on 4.75% at moment #London2012

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 4, 2012

Big Labour gains in Ealing/Hillingdon, Barnet/Camden and big majority in Harrow/Brent sign London doughnut is changing politicshome.com/uk/article/523…

— Mark Gettleson (@polhomepulse) May 4, 2012

19:36 YouGov President Peter Kellner has just spoken to the BBC’s Jon Sopel outside City Hall, telling them: “Boris has won.”

“On the 14 super-constituencies across London, we’ve had the results for 9, and Boris has a clear lead. It’s currently running about four percentage point. Boris is up one percentage point from four years ago, Ken is up three points from four years ago, so the gap has closed by one point…that’s too big a lead for Ken to overturn. It’s a tantalisingly narrow vote, but I think it’s just wide enough with the figures we’ve got to say that Boris has won.”

Sopel asked Kellner why Johnson was running ahead of the Conservatives and yet Livingstone was running behind Labour. Kellner responded:

“There’s a great many Labour voters – perhaps as many of 200,000 who did not vote for Ken. 100,000 voted for Boris and 100,000 . Had Ken held on to those 200,000 Labour voters, he would be on the point of being Mayor tonight.”

The other factor, he says, is simple: “Boris makes Londoners laugh.”

19:28 There are three more constituencies to go for the London Assembly: Brent and Harrow, Enfield and Haringey, North East (which includes Hackney).

19:23 UKIP’s Annabelle Fuller has told EastLondonLines about the mistake that saw the party’s candidates identified as belonging to the ‘Fresh Choice for London’ party on ballot papers:

“Even though we’ve been polling really succesfully and our message has been polling succesfully, our work has gone to waste and it should never have been allowed to happen. It’s an absolute terrible shame but we know our message definitely is resonating.”

She says the mistake wasn’t noticed until after it was submitted and was too late.

Before we suffered this we were on for two perhaps three seats. There will be a thorough invetigation internally – of course many people put time and money into the campaign and we need to make sure they’re not let down.

19:09 Labour gain another GLA seat from the Conservatives, Barnet and Camden. Andrew Dismore won with over 44 per cent of the vote, taking the seat from Tory Brian Coleman, known for his large expenses claims while in City Hall. It is the second seat Labour takes from the Conservatives.

19:05 Our reporter Simon Newton tells us:

The BBC’s London political editor Tim Donovan believes the race between Livingstone and Johnson is going to be very close, possibly a few thousand votes. However this still indicates a narrow Johnson victory.

19:03 Some of you voting yesterday might have noticed that an unknown party called ‘Fresh Choice for London’ had appropriated the UKIP logo. You might even have wondered why your local UKIP candidate had defected too.

Apparently this is all the fault of incorrectly filled nomination papers. Whoops.

Party leader Nigel Farage told ITV that the mistake probably meant a lot of confused voters had put their X next to another party, believing UKIP was not standing.

“We hope and expected to get two seats, but this has cost us dear. It is a lesson hard learned.”

18:56 Our reporter Holly Powell-Jones has some analysis of the results so far:

So far we’ve had 10 of the 25 GLA seats confirmed, with Conservatives holding onto six of their seats and Labour securing four.

The biggest shock result was in Ealing and Hillingdon, where Conservative Richard Barnes lost his seat to Labour’s Onkar Singh Sahota by just over 2 per cent of votes.

In Lambeth and Southwark Val Shawcross secured a re-election with a 16 per cent rise in Labour votes from 2008’s election.

Greenwich and Lewisham also saw an increase in the percentage of Labour votes with Len Duvall securing just under 50 per cent of votes.

But it’s City and East’s John Biggs who’s had the highest percentage of Labour votes so far – securing a re-election with 63 per cent of votes.

So far there’s been a dip in the percentage of Conservative votes, although they have retained their strongholds in Merton and Wandsworth, Havering and Redbridge, Bexley and Bromley, South West, Croydon and Sutton, and West Central.

18:53 It’s been a joke for many, but probably a sore spot for UKIP but Twitter has come alive throughout the day with the knowledge that the party made an “admin” mistake. On the ballot paper, they were referred to as “Fresh Choice for London”. Nigel Farage,  said he was “furious” on the BBC earlier today.

18:25 The race is closer than we thought. Professor John Curtice of the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends has just told the BBC:

We cannot rule out the possibility that maybe, maybe, Ken Livingstone will just emerge ahead on the first vote.

Meanwhile, Edd Miliband has responded groan-inducingly to a slightly lackadaisical egging in Southampton.

For those wondering about egg’s origins, fairly sure it wasn’t free range but nothing can take away from cracking result in Southampton…

— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) May 4, 2012

18:07  John Biggs, who just won Labour for City & East, gives a winning speech:

17:59 PA are reporting ‘Boris is Ahead’ for London mayor but things aren’t clear cut yet:

“Labour is ahead in the vote for London-wide Assembly candidates followed by the Tories while the Lib Dems are in fourth place behind the Greens.

London Elects’ graphs put Labour ahead in eight of the Assembly’s 14 first-past-the-post constituencies, with Tories on course to take the other six.”

17:56 EastLondonLines Erin Tayor at the ExCeL centre with a report on the City and East election.

17:52 Of boroughs announced so far it is five for consevatives and four for Labour. Ealing and Hillingdon is a GAIN for Labour, Onkar Singh winning that one.

17:46 EastLondonLines’ interview with Tony McNulty, former MP and Minister for London.

17:44

John Biggs, Labour, holds City & East borough.

John Biggs pic: Heidi Gao

17:30 The Greater London Assembly members so far are as follows…

4 Conservatives:

Merton and Wandsworth- Richard Tracey

Bexley and Bromley- James Cleverly

Croydon and Sutton- Steve O’Connell

Havering and Redbridge- Roger Evans

3 Labour:

City and East – John Biggs

Greenwich and Lewisham -Len Duvall

Lambeth and Southwark- Val Shawcross

17:18 EastLondonLines Alex Bishop has interviewed Labour’s North East candidate Jenette Arnold, who said that whoever wins the race for mayor needs to focus on housing.

17:16 Guardian again, Ken pulled back one point its Johnson 44 per cent Livingston 40 per cent, Paddick 4 per cent, Jenny Jones 5 per cent, Siobahn Benita 4 percent. Comeback?

17:09 Big, big win for Labour in City and East, figures to come

16:43 Figures for Greenwich & Lewisham courtesy of the Guardian

“Len Duvall* Labour 65,366 (49.61 per cent)

Alex Wilson Conservative 27,329 (20.74 per cent)

Roger Sedgley Green 12,427 (9.43 per cent)

John Russell Liberal Democrat 9,393 (7.13 per cent)

Barbara Raymond People Before Profit 6,873 (5.22 per cent)

Paul Oakley UK Independence Party 4,997 (3.79 per cent)

Roberta Woods British National Party 3,551 (2.70 per cent)

Tess Culnane National Front 1,816 (1.38 per cent)

Turnout: 36.62% (change: -5.66 per cent)

16:17 The boroughs are starting to roll in now: Val Shawcross re-elected GLA member in Lambeth & Southwark, estimated 53 per cent share of votes.

16:11 Evening Standard journalist Ross Lydall has this as a big swing for Labour

@InsideCroydon I had the Tory majority in Croydon + Sutton in 2008 at 42,665? Is now 9,418. #londonmayor

— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) May 4, 2012

16:08 Croydon and Sutton GLA Result: Conservative Hold

16:02 We are hearing the City & East results are expected in the next 30 minutes

15:45 Labour candidate Len Duvall has taken Greenwich and Lewisham; Croydon and Sutton has been held by conservative candidate Steve C’Connell.

15:33 Conservative GLA candidate James Cleverly keeps his seat in Bexley and Bromley.

15:31 The Guardian’s James Ball thinks the mayoral vote is going to be closer than expected.

Of the mayoral areas still with lots of ballots to count, North East is unambiguously good for Ken, other two probably could be pretty even.

— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) May 4, 2012

15:07 First GLA constituency result is in, its a hold for the Conservatives in Merton & Wandsworth, but with 4.5 per cent swing to Labour.

14:40 Labour is closing the gap as a large influx on Ken votes comes in, but Boris is still out in front.

14.33 Siobhan Benita speaks to David Dimbleby on BBC News and says she’s doing very well and “very close with Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones for 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th.” She vows to stay in London politics after this election.

14.29 The Liberal Democrats’ poor performance has been highlighted in Edinburgh where a man dressed as a penguin has received more votes than their candidate. The independent candidate Professor Pongoo has received more votes than both the Lib Dem and Green Party candidates.

14.20 Jenny Jones and Brian Paddick are neck and neck for third position in the mayoral elections, with the Green Party just ahead.

14.10 It’s worth pointing out that we do have journalists at all the relevant counting centres and they’ll be relaying photos, audio and video as soon as updates start coming through.

14.02 Many news outlets are predicting a win for Boris Johnson. Real-time stats from the count in Lewisham and Greenwich indicate that, though Ken Livingston is ahead, it’s not by very much. These stats, however, represent 1st choice, not 2nd choice distribution.

13.52 A power cut at Alexandra Palace has put the predicted results announcment time to 8pm, or possibly even later, as reported by the Independent.

13.10 Stats blog Love The Data have produced this charming graphic showing who among the London Mayoral candidates has been dissing whom.

13.02 A very good afternoon to you all and welcome to the EastLondonLines election live blog. As the results come through for the various votes which took place across the city yesterday we will be telling you what they are.

Reporters: Hugo Goodridge, Alex Bishop, Delores William, Simon Newton, Steven Ren, Erin Taylor, Heidi Gao, Holly Powell-Jones, Olga Casablancas, Steph Davies, George Drake Jr, Laurence Dodds, Raziye Akkoc

Ballot papers sorted for electronic counting. Photo: London Elects

Electronic counting for the Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections takes place today and despite the Tories taking a battering across the country, a YouGov poll suggests the current Mayor Boris Johnson can hope to be re-elected.

The poll for the Evening Standard “reveals he has increased his lead to six points and is on course to deliver a 53-47 per cent win.”

The Labour Party may be concerned by analysis of voting intentions that showed two in 10 Labour voters intended to reject their party’s candidate Ken Livingstone and half planned to switch to Boris.

However, this swing may not be reflected in voting for the Greater London Assembly candidates as voters had three separate votes for Mayor, constituency and London wide party list. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition parties have been losing hundreds of seats in elections outside London.

London Elects reports that they had a provisional figure of the London electorate  as of April 30 at 5,808,555. But the weather was poor on polling day with rain and low temperatures across Lewisham, Tower Hamlets, Croydon and Hackney. Traditionally fewer people vote in local authority elections and the weather is often a determining factor.

The polling stations in the East London Boroughs officially closed at 10.05 pm last night and the electronic voting begins this morning at 8.45 am with the results expected to be declared around 12 hours later.

Counting takes place in three locations across London – ExCeL, Olympia, and Alexandra Palace.

The 14 Constituency London Assembly Members will be announced by the relevant Constituency Returning Officers. This will take place in the count centre. The declaration of the 11 London-wide Assembly Members and the Mayor of London is made by the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) and will take place at City Hall once all of the votes have been counted.

 London Decides- Mayoral and Assembly election

St Matthias School Polling Station in Bethnal Green. Photo: Alex Bishop

Police officers are present at polling stations across the borough today as Londoners vote in the Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections.

Following the announcement earlier this week of a Metropolitan Police investigation into electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets, the presence of Met officers is to guard against further electoral irregularities.

At St Matthias Church of England Primary School, Bacon Street, Bethnal Green this afternoon there were a number of police officers and vehicles present.

On April 26 and April 28, the Met received allegations of electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets.  It was reported by The London Evening Standard that police would be stationed at all 70 polling stations in the borough today in response to the developments.

A spokesperson from Tower Hamlets Council told East London Lines: “We work to the full extent of our powers to ensure the electoral register is as accurate as possible – in fact we conducted extra visits to over 4,700 electors in the days before the register closed. As a result we removed 890 electors from the list as they had moved on. We also encourage residents to report any suspicious activity to us and to the Police – whose duty it is to investigate.

“However it is important not to confuse fraudulent activity with a register that changes by up to 20 per cent a month because we have a population that is highly mobile – our borough includes a high proportion of students and restaurant workers. The borough would support moves to strengthen the law to make it harder to commit electoral fraud.”

Police investigate alleged postal voting fraud

Polling today to elect Mayor for London at City Hall and London Assembly members. Photo: Electoral Commission guide cover.

From 7 am this morning East London Lines voters decide who will be the next Mayor of London and the political make-up of the Greater London Assembly. The polls close at 10 pm. Counting takes place tomorrow Friday May 4, and the results should be known by the evening.

Voters in the East London Lines boroughs of Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets can elect representatives in the GLA constituencies of Croydon & Sutton, Greenwich & Lewisham, North East, and City & East. About 5.8 million people can cast their votes today across London.

On Friday May 4 you will be able to view the live counting and results process on-line.

East London Lines will have reporting teams covering the results to bring you the reaction and atmosphere. We will also be running a live multimedia blog.

The weather forecast indicates cold and wet conditions in the morning followed by a damp afternoon. The Electoral Commission advises non postal voters to “arrive in plenty of time. Even if voters join a queue before 10pm, they will not be able to vote unless they have been issued with a ballot paper before polls close.”

People registered to vote can fill in three different ballot papers.

Online advice and guidance available from the Electoral Commission

The pink coloured ballot paper is for the London Mayor. Voters can cast a first and second choice from the list of candidates who will either be part of a political party or standing as an independent candidate. There are separate columns for first and second choice. Voters are being encouraged to put crosses down for first and second choice. A cross for only first choice will be counted. But anyone leaving a blank in the first choice column and putting a cross in the second choice column will not have their vote counted.

The yellow coloured ballot paper is for the London Assembly Constituency member. This is for the person voters would like to represent their local constituency.Voters can cast one vote for a candidate.Voters should mark one cross (X) in the box next to the candidate they wish to vote for.

Special London Elects web-site for the independent team that organises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly elections.

The orange coloured paper is for the London-wide Assembly member. This is for the party or independent candidate that voters would like to become a London-wide Assembly Member.Voters should mark one cross (X) in the box next to the party or candidate they wish to vote for.

Voting Systems being used

1 Mayor of London by Supplementary Vote.

If a candidate receives more than half of all the first choice votes they are elected immediately. If this does not happen, the two candidates with the most first choice votes go through to a second round. All other candidates are eliminated, but the second choice votes on the eliminated ballot papers are calculated. Second choice votes for either of the top two candidates are added to the totals for those two candidates from the first round. The candidate with the highest combined total of first and second choice votes will be elected as Mayor of London.

14 Constituency Assembly Members by First Past the Post system.

This means that the candidate in each constituency with the most votes is elected as a London Assembly Constituency Member.

11 London-wide Assembly Members by a form of proportional representation.

Votes from across London for the London-wide Assembly Members are added together. The 11 seats are then allocated based upon a mathematical formula – the Modified d‟Hondt Formula. This takes into account the total votes cast in the London-wide ballot together with the number of Constituency Assembly Member seats that each political party has already won. Eleven rounds of calculations take place to fill the 11 vacant Assembly Member seats, and the party or independent candidate with the highest result at each round is allocated the seat. Seats won by parties are allocated to party candidates in the order they appear on the relevant party‟s list of candidates.

Counting will take place electronically on Friday at three centres across London: Alexandra Palace, Excel, and Olympia.

Who to vote for

Election stories at East London Lines

Short guide to voting in person (how to find polling station and information specifically about London.)

Situation of polling stations in Lewisham

Advice on polling and voting in Croydon

Advice on polling and voting in Hackney

Hackney Central Ward By-Election, Thursday 3 May 2012 (For Hackney Council)

Situation of polling stations in Tower Hamlets

Guide to Electronic Counting in the 2012 Mayoral and London Assembly election. May 3, 2012

Green Candidate Mustafa Keorel photo:

The Green candidate for the upcoming Hackney Central by-election says he will fight to ensure residents don’t get a “raw deal” out of the Olympics.

Speaking to East London Lines, he expressed concern over the number of jobs promised to local people in Hackney in the run up to the games. He says the actual figure falls short:

He claims he is the only candidate who actually lives in the ward and having spent years as a youth worker and knows young people want opportunities.

Korel also has experience as campaigning officer for the Green Party in Hackney. He switched parties, having previously campaigned for the Liberal Democrats,  after they “sold out” on issues such as student tuition fees when they joined the coalition.

He has also been critical of the Labour party and feels Hackney voters want a new, alternative voice to challenge the current Labour council.

Housing is also high on his list of priorities, along with employment and services for young people and the elderley.

In an interview with the Hackney Gazette: ““I have been ever hopeful for a different voice in Hackney which will speak up against injustice and which is owned by Hackney residents, a voice that understands social and environmental change go hand-in-hand, not one before the other”

Local blogger Duchess of Hackney, who claims to be “not affiliated to any party”  featured a post about Korel last month saying she was “impressed” by the candidate, whose roots lie in the community.

Korel argues that being local to the area is important to him- and to potential voters:

Labour Candidate Ben Hayhurst. photo: www.hackney-labour.org.uk

Standing for Labour in the by-election is Ben Hayhurst.

Mr Hayhurst is a barrister who has lived in Hackney for eight years with his partner Helen. He says he is passionate about youth provision, an interest which stems from his work within the criminal justice system.  A statement on the Hackney Labour Party’s website says:

“I see the most vulnerable amongst us (young people, many with mental health problems) caught in the revolving door of the system with a lack of support, jobs, housing, prospects or any sort of positive framework to make a go if it.”

According to an interview with the Hackney Gazette, Mr Hayhurst  specialises in serious crime and tax litigation. His career has seen him work on the prosecution of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosovic, while an intern at the United Nations in 2003.

The results of the by-election will be announced on Friday

More information about the upcoming Hackney Central councillor by-election can be found on the Hackney Council website.

Visit the Hackney pages of East London Lines to hear from the other candidates standing in the election.

Mustafa Korel to stand for Greens in council by-election (Hackney Citizen)

Andrew Boff Conservative Candidate for Hackney By-Election. Photo Andrew Boff

Andrew Boff, Conservative candidate in the Hackney Council by-election, says cuts to youth services are “disgusting”.

Boff says, if elected, he will spend all his basic allowance on improving them, and Youth and housing will be among his priorities.

In this interview for East London Lines he made it clear he wants to see a reversal of the cuts to youth services in the ward:

The Conservative candidate has accused the Labour Hackney Council of making a “pact with poverty” by not signing up to the London Living Wage, although admits he has “never been much of a fan of the minimum wage” himself.

He explains why he supports the London Living Wage, but not the minimum wage:

Boff also argues that Hackney’s regeneration projects focus too much on attracting new people, instead of supporting families who already live there:

Despite the fact that Labour has a stronghold in Hackney, Boff feels that his position as a Coonservative has benefits; namely holding the council and the Mayor to account.

Boff has already served on Hackney and Hillingdon Councils and is a member of the London Assembly, although he recently admitted that the latter role is “largely futile”.

In an interview with the Hackney Citizen, Boff said: “the ban on local small businesses bidding for Council contracts should be removed; residential road schemes should only be undertaken with the full consent of the residents who live on them; buses on the Narroway should be diverted to allow Hackney’s High Street to thrive; high-rise developments are not the solution to the Hackney’s housing problem, which requires a greater investment in housing suitable for families; and cuts to the Youth Service should be reversed.”

More information about the other candidates standing in the Hackney Central By-Election can be found on the Hackney pages of East London Lines.

Andrew Boff’s profile on the Greater London Authority website.

Hackney Central Ward By-Election Thursday 3rd May.