The Mayor of London & the Greater London Assembly
Since 2000 London has had a
directly elected Mayor and Assembly.
Both are elected for 4 year terms. The last election was on May 3rd 2012.
Mayoral
election
The Mayor is elected on a two tier system.
Each voter has two votes. If the Winning candidate receives more than half the
votes cast he or she is elected. If no candidate gets 50% or more, the second
preference votes of those voters who did not vote for either of the two
candidates who received the most votes, are allocated to the two remaining
candidates and the one who then reaches 50% (first plus second preference
votes) is elected.
Boris
Johnson
was re-elected Mayor for London
for a second term in 2012.
Mayor’s powers
The Mayor is responsible for Transport for London, the London Development
Agency, Strategic Planning and Housing. He nominates some of the members of the
Metropolitan Police Authority and the Fire & Emergency Planning Authority.
Greater London Assembly
The Greater London Assembly comprises 25 members. 14 are elected for
constituencies and the remaining 11 members are elected on a pan London basis.
Beckenham is part of the Bexley and Bromley Constituency which is currently
represented by James Cleverly AM.
James was born and brought up in
South East London. His family moved to Downham and then Beckenham shortly after
the Second World War, and he has lived in the area all his life. James' contact
details are as follows:
Greater London Assembly, City
Hall, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2AA.
James also writes a regular
blog which you can access at: James Cleverly Blog
GLA
Election
The 14 constituency members are
elected on a first past the post basis. The London wide members are elected by
a complicated system of proportional representation, called the Modified
d’Hondt Formula. After taking account of the result of the constituency
elections, the d’Hondt formula is used to proportionally allocate the remaining
11 seats to the parties or individuals according to their total London-wide
vote. Voters vote for a Party rather than individuals. The formula means that
the larger the number of constituencies which are won by a particular party,
the smaller their top-up on the London wide list.
The composition of the current
Assembly is as follows: 9 Conservative members,12 Labour members, 2
Liberal Democrat members and 2 Green Party members.
GLA’s role
The GLA’s role is to scrutinise
the work of the Mayor and investigates issues that matter to Londoners. The
Assembly works by directly questioning the Mayor about his activities,
strategies and decisions. It also publishes the findings and recommendations from
its investigations and makes proposals to the Mayor. In order for the Mayor’s
decisions to be overturned two thirds of the Members of the Assembly have to
vote for a motion.
Full details of the powers of the Mayor, Greater London Assembly, Transport for
London and the Fire Authority can be obtained via this link: Greater London Authority