How voters in the capital can make their mark (twice)

Last updated at 23:37 28 April 2008


The pink ballot papers which Londoners will fill in on Thursday have two columns: one to mark their favourite candidate and the other to select their second preference.

The Mayor will be selected under a system known as the 'supplementary vote', where voters choose both a first and second preference.

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Choice: There are 10 candidates for the mayoral election

If one candidate receives more than half the first-choice votes, he is declared the winner.

This is highly unlikely, however, and there will be a second round between the two candidates with the highest number of first choice votes.

These are virtually certain to be Mr Livingstone and Mr Johnson.

In the second round, all the other candidates are eliminated and the second choice votes cast by their supporters are added to the tally of the two front-runners.

Second-preference votes cast by supporters of the top two are not included.

The biggest batch of second-preference votes is expected to come from supporters of the LibDem contender Brian Paddick.

Finally, the candidate with the highest total is declared the winner. The system is designed to ensure that the winner has the active endorsement of more than half the voters.

The process will be carried out at an "e-counting" centre, where ballot papers are scanned, tallied automatically and verified.

In the traditional "first past the post" system - used in Parliamentary elections - the winner is simply the candidate with the most votes, even though that frequently falls below half the total cast.

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