Londoners voted by an overwhelming margin on Thursday to restore a mayoral form of government last seen here about 250 years ago, but the turnout was below 40 percent, a major disappointment to political parties.
The London referendum coincided with local elections that involved 166 councils, most of them in major metropolitan areas of Britain. The Labor Party generally suffered losses to the Conservatives.
Neither result was a surprise. Polls have consistently shown support for election of a London mayor, and the governing party usually loses strength in off-year local elections.
Early returns in London showed that more than 75 percent of voters favored election of a mayor. With a population of 7 million, London is the largest city in Europe and is unique in the Western world for not having a citywide elected government.
But Londoners may have to wait until the spring of 2000 to choose a mayor. That is the favored date for the first election.
The former Conservative government of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher abolished the last citywide government in London, the Greater London Council, in 1986, on grounds that it was wasting taxpayer money on leftist causes.
Since then, citywide affairs have been handled by the non-elected Government Office for London, by various boards and by several quasi-nongovernmental organizations.
London also has 32 elected borough councils, which govern affairs in their jurisdictions.
A BBC-TV poll on Thursday showed that Labor Member of Parliament Ken Livingston is the favorite of London voters for the job of mayor, who will be responsible for citywide services ranging from transport to environment.
But Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labor government is strongly opposed to Livingston’s candidacy, as he represents the socialistic old Labor wing of the party and has become a leading critic of the government.
Labor has promised to announce its choice for mayor after the referendum.
Best-selling novelist Jeffrey Archer is a leading candidate for the Conservative nomination, but Conservative leaders are cool toward him.
Labor’s decision to propose a return to mayoral government in London is part of its program of governmental decentralization.
In the local elections, the voter turnout was less than 30 percent, one of the lowest figures in recent history.
Labor’s share of the vote was down 3 percent and the Liberal Democrats, who normally do well in local elections, saw their share drop by 2 percent.
The Conservatives gained mainly in the south of England, where they took control of the council in Tunbridge Wells. Their overall result was up 4 percent, a relatively modest recovery for a party that suffered a disastrous defeat in the national election a year ago. They also took Birmingham in central England.
The Liberal Democrats’ best result was in Liverpool, where they won control of the council. But they lost control of six other councils.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said the low turnout in the local elections was “a matter of concern for democracy.” Several politicians said they believed voters were fed up with politicians of all parties.
