It was nice to see one of my local papers West End Extra sub-headline, that LABOUR’s SUCCESS is QURESHI’s LOSS after 12 years in office at City Hall as an Assembly Member (AM) but the real explanation is the D’Hondt formula. 

As the 11 London-wide Assembly Members are elected using a form of ‘proportional representation’. Votes from across London for the London-wide Assembly Members were added together. The 11 seats were then allocated based upon a mathematical formula – the Modified d’Hondt Formula. This took into account the total votes cast in the London-wide ballot together with the number of Constituency London Assembly Member seats that each political party had already won.

11 rounds of calculations took place to fill the 11 vacant Assembly Member seats, with the party or independent candidate with the highest result at each round allocated the seat. Seats won by parties were allocated to party candidates in the order they appeared on the relevant party’s list of candidates. This voting system was used to ensure the overall Assembly reflects how all of London voted. As the Labour landslide meant we gained the constituency seat for Wandsworth & Merton, l fell off the 11 elected London-wide Assembly, as l was in fourth place in the Labour lists.  

But rest assure that l will be back somewhere in the London scene.