On 5 May, voters in Newham will choose their mayor and councillors across the borough’s 24 wards.
In the previous election in 2018, Labour won the control of the council winning all 60 seats, by receiving a 67.2%, of the votes, compared to Conservatives who received 15.2%.
On the same level, Labour, Rokhsana Fiaz became mayor receiving 73.4%, compared to the Conservative, Rahima Khan who got 11.9% of the votes, succeeding Robin Wales, former Newham’s mayor for over a decade.
As with most London boroughs, new boundaries were decided by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, to increase the seats of Newham’s council from 60 to 66, divided into eighteen three-councillor wards and six two-councillor wards.
A total of 253 candidates are standing in the election for the 66 seats, with the Labour Party and the Green Party including a full slate of candidates, with Green Party including for the first time a full slate.
The Conservative party will have 59 candidates, making it the first time since 2010 with not a full slate.
The Christian Peoples Alliance will run with 26 candidates, 17 candidates will have the Liberal Democrats, 6 for the Independents, 4 for TUBS, and 3 for Reform UK.
A total of seven candidates across all parties run for mayor, with Rokhsana Fiaz being the only one who stood for mayor in the 2018 election.
On 6 May 2021, a mayoral referendum took place, on whether to remain or not the mayoral system, with 56% of voters supporting keeping it.
The electoral process will take place by multi-member first-past-the-post voting, with voters to have as many votes as there will be councillors to be elected.
The top two or three depending on the ward will be elected. All registered electors aged or over 18 will be entitled to vote.
In-person voting will start from 7.00am to 10.00pm on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.
Featured image credit: Robin Sones @Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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