UK: Boris Johnson Re-Elected London Mayor
By Ria Novosti
Boris Johnson has been re-elected for a second term as London mayor, narrowly beating Labour candidate Ken Livingstone, the London election commission chairman, John Bennett, said.
Johnson, a Conservative Party member, garnered 51.53 percent of the vote, leaving Livingstone only 3 percent behind.
Johnson, 47, won on second preference votes after failing to gain more than half of the vote in the first round.
Under the supplementary vote system used in the election, voters are invited to express a first and a second preference. If none of the candidates wins more than 50 percent of first preference votes, the top two candidates face off in the second round.
In the first round, Johnson won 44.01 percent of the votes, while Livingstone grabbed 40.30 percent. Their closest competitor, Green Party candidate Jenny Jones, was supported by 4.48 percent of the voters.
A total of seven candidates took part in the mayoral race.
In his victory speech, Johnson vowed to fight for a “good deal for Londoners” from government, adding he wanted to “deliver prosperity for everybody in this city,” the BBC reported.
Livingstone, 66, congratulated Johnson on what he described as his “personal victory.”
“This is the defeat I most regret,” he said of his failure, adding that the Friday race was his “last election.”
