Many Americans are not aware that London has used Instant Runoff Voting in their mayoral elections since the creation of the elected office in 2000. In each of the three elections, the candidate who received a plurality in the first preference count ended up winning the election.
Also of interest is the fact that all leading candidates were strong opponents of the war in Iraq and of the UK “war on terror.”
Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson received 42.48% of the vote in the first-round count, and ultmately won with 53.2% in the final count. Incumbent Ken Livingstone received 36.38% in the first-round count, and received 46.8% in the final count. Livingstone was the nominee of the Labour Party, as he was in the 2004 election. However, he was originally elected in 2000 as an independent candidate.
In the first-round tally, the Green Party received 3.15% (compared to 2.9% in 2004) and the British National Party received 2.84% (compared to 3.0% in 2004). The UK Independent Party lost most of its support, getting only 0.91% compared to 6.0% in 2004.
Here are the details with all the candidates, for the three elections:
The London Mayor ballots have 2 columns with X votes in each column — first choice column and second choice column.
The Conservatives used an “open primary” to nominate their candidate. It worked like what Americans call a caucus, in that a meeting was involved. The event was open to any voter, and voters had to sign up in advance.
Livingstone is practically a communist, and it’s always good to see a far leftist get his tail kicked.
I see that London’s new mayor was born in the U. S. and says that he wouldn’t mind being president of the U. S. one day (he’s presumably joking).
What’s most interesting about Boris Johnson’s victory is the fact that he’s a self-described “libertarian” and hails from the libertarian wing of the Tory Party.
You might say the quixiotic Johnson is a Third Party candidate within a Major Party.
I see you guys ran with my news tip after I tipped you off to Boris Johnnson’s win.
It’s customary in web politics to give a “hat tip” to the person who feeds a website information on a hot news item.
Check out some of the major sites like RedState.com, HotAir.com, National Review, ect… You’ll see frequent mentions of “hat tip to so and so…”
Won’t fault y’all this time, but next time how ’bout a little web politeness, please.
Thanks.
Eric Dondero, Publisher
MainstreamLibertarian.com
Libertarian Republican blog
Believe it or not, you are not the only one watching the news. Hat tip to Eric Garris.
The Canadian and British Conservative parties are not very conservative by American standards. Brian Mulroney, Canadian PM from 1984 to 1993, raised taxes and left the economy in a mess. The
Conservative Party was decimated in the ’93 elections; only 2 CP candidates were elected to Parliament, and even the PM lost her seat.
A politician like Margaret Thatcher couldn’t be elected leader of the British Tories today. David Cameron, the current leader, is poll-driven and has even bought into the “climate change” hoax.
The winners in 2004, 2004, and 2008 received 45.3%, 43.1%, and 47.6% of the total vote after the transfer of 2nd preferences.
In a true runoff or in a Top 2 election, the voters would have had a chance to compare the two leaders side to side before casting their ultimate vote.
Intesting. Although it will be interesting to see how libertarian the Tory really is when it gets down to the nuts and bolts of public debate and policy.
I understand that their is now a UK Libertarian Party, as opposed to just the Libertaian Alliance.
Frankly, I liked and disliked some of the Libertarians I have know, but I have a hard time trusting any of them with public office.
BTW, their was a US Constitutional Amendment Voting Rights Amendment proposed. I do not think it has gone anywhere past the committee.
The original draft of the post-war voting rights amendment included a right to vote and to be a candidate. Anyone given much thing to drafting a constitutional amendment on candidate and political party rights?
I have written a few, and have thought about circulating them to get some sort of discussion going.
BBC News
news.bbc.co.uk
has links to the London math –
Assembly [city council] — add on P.R. seats
Mayor — top 2 IRV version
Clever attempt at a save there Mr. Winger. But Libertarian Republican blog was the very first libertarian site, (practically the first site of all political webs), to run with this story. Garris didn’t mention it til a day later.
Nice try.
Steve: While the Conservative Party of Canada may not be that conservative by American standards, it is not the same as Brian Mulroney’s party which won only 2 seats in 1993. Mulroney’s party was the Progressive Conservative Party (PC). In 1993, much of the PCs’ support in Western Canada went to the Reform Party which won 52 seats in that election.
The Reform Party later became part of the Canadian Alliance party.
In 2003, the Canadian Alliance merged with the PC to form the Conservative Party of Canada.
In the three elections before the merger, the Reform or Alliance party won a lot more seats than the PC each time (although the Liberal Party won a majority in each election):
1993: Reform 52, PC 2
1997: Reform 60, PC 20
2000: Alliance 66, PC 12
So there is some connection between the old PC and the current Conservative Party, but they are not identical.
I’m fairly certain that the mainstream British media ran stories communicating the results of the mayoral election in Britain’s largest city before any American libertarian web sites did.
OBVIOUSLY BBC ran the story FIRST.
BBC = ABC, CBS and NBC combined
Joshua #12: My point was that British and Canadian conservatives are not very conservative compared to US conservatives. That certainly applies to Stephen Harper, the current Canadian PM. I didn’t figure very many readers were interested in the history that you’ve detailed so well.
If memory serves, the Canadian Conservative Party merged with the Progressive Party in the 1940s to become the Progressive Conservatives.
Preston Manning, the leader of the Reform Party, was sometimes compared to Ross Perot.
The young man who challenged Kim Campbell for leader of the Progressive Conservatives in ’93 later became the leader of a party in Quebec.
http://www.londonelects.org.uk
links to the voting systems and results for the London Assembly [city council] and Mayor.
Stone Age math continues in the U.S.A.