31
abolished in 1986,
109
Ken Livingstone, was elected to power as the head of the newly-
created GLA. With all of the votes tallied, Mr. Livingstone had a total of 776,427 votes
to 564,137 for the Conservative candidate Steve Norris.
110
These were the two highest
vote totals among eleven candidates running for the position. In the Assembly elections,
all twenty-five slots were filled via proportional representation. Fourteen of the seats
were allocated on a constituency basis where the party receiving the most votes in the
district won the seat, while the other eleven seats were filled on a city-wide basis, via a
second ballot paper, with results depending upon how many votes were cast for each
party throughout London.
111
By the end of the election, Labour and the Conservatives
each held nine seats, the Liberal Democrats had four and the Green Party had seized three
seats on the Assembly, due to the fact that Livingstone had endorsed their party
throughout the campaign
112
and because the proportional representation system was used
for allocation. Five years on, despite the drawbacks, directly-elected mayors have proven
broadly successful despite fears to the contrary. Moreover, according to Anna Randle,
the head of organization at the New Local Government Network think-tank, directly-
elected mayors have brought democratic accountability to the local level. She stated that
“in the public’s eye, they are no longer the anonymous, non-directly accountable leader
of the council, but the person with whom the buck stops. Such a profile has the potential
to strengthen democratic accountability.”
113
With the electoral disaster that has befallen
the move towards directly-elected regional assemblies perhaps Ms. Randle is correct to
109
Tomaney, “The Governance of London,” 243-4.
110
“Livingstone Back in Charge in London,” The Daily Telegraph, 5 May 2000.
111
Tomaney, “The Governance of London,” 248, 261-2.
112
Ibid., 262.
113
“Elected mayors ‘boost democracy,’” BBC News, 23 February 2004.
Convention