London, Thanasis Gavos

The citizens of dozens of municipalities in England have been coming to the polls since the morning to elect their local lords.

More than 2,600 councilors in 107 boroughs are called upon to nominate, as well as ten mayors in major cities and metropolitan boroughs, such as London, where the new 25-member metropolitan council will also be nominated.

37 local police commanders in England and Wales are also being elected, while a ballot box is being set up to elect a new MP in the Blackpool South constituency. The winner will fill the seat of resigned Tory MP Scott Benton, who broke parliamentary rules of conduct by becoming involved in a lobbying scandal.

The polls will close at 10pm local time and the results will begin to be announced on Friday morning.

The new mayor of London will likely be finalized on Saturday. The latest polls gave Labor-backed incumbent Mayor Sadiq Khan a wide lead of up to 22 percentage points over Conservative candidate Susan Hall.

It is generally estimated that Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party will suffer significant losses of municipal seats, possibly even 500 of the thousand it currently defends.

An important criterion for the degree of citizens’ dissatisfaction with the government but also a potential factor for further intra-party questioning of Mr. Sunak will be a possible defeat of the Conservative mayors of the West Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Solihull, etc.) Andy Street and Tees Valley (Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool, Darlington, Redcar) Ben Houtsen.

Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday night that today’s election “is an opportunity to vote for change and give our verdict on 14 years of forfeiture” under the Conservative government.

It is noted that among the 13 candidates for mayor of London, Cypriot-born gym owner Andreas Michlis is also running as an independent.

British, Irish, EU and Commonwealth citizens who are registered adults are eligible to vote. Under a new law, voters must carry ID to be allowed to vote.