ShahrarAli_LondonAssembly2016_No3

Green Party Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali has today been confirmed by the London Green Party as third on the party’s list of candidates for the London Assembly election, subject to final ratification next month. This follows from a recount due to an error in the process that was used to calculate the candidates using the single transferable vote system.

Shahrar said:

“I feel honoured and humbled that members have chosen me as one of their lead candidates and hugely excited at the prospect that Londoners could return their first BME Green to City Hall. It’s gratifying, and comes as a huge relief, to finally know the true result of a hotly contested ballot of over 12,000 members held over the summer, that had to be recounted due to discovery of a significant mistake in the count instructions given by us.”

“Amongst my priorities, I will give voice to tackling the everyday prejudice or downright racism faced by ethnic minorities. Greens will fight your corner, whether combating illicit racial profiling by police or confronting the Islamophobia in our schools and colleges fostered by the government’s Prevent programme.”

“As a lifelong Londoner, I would relish the opportunity to represent and serve Londoners’ interests from City Hall. As part of a great Green team, I would tackle the problems faced by ordinary people and the poverty-stricken, whether those marginalised by work which doesn’t pay, public transport that doesn’t come cheap, or by housing that banks on developers and investors at families’ expense. Only Greens are able to offer the radical vision and joined up approach that Londoners desperately need and deserve.”

Subject to final ratification by the London Federation of Green Parties at its December meeting, the full list of London-wide candidates in order of election are:

  1. Sian Berry
  2. Caroline Russell
  3. Shahrar Ali
  4. Jonathan Bartley
  5. Noel Lynch
  6. Rashid Nix
  7. Tom Chance
  8. Dee Searle
  9. Benali Hamdache
  10. Andrea Carey Fuller
  11. RoseMary Warrington

This statement provided by the London Green Party today provides further details on why the recount, and re-ordering of candidates, has occurred:

The Green Party uses Electoral Reform Services, an independent organisation, to conduct internal elections. On reviewing the result of our London Assembly list election it emerged that a small procedural deviation from our selection framework was made when the instruction was given to ERS about how our votes should be counted. The procedures used for counting votes in an election by Single Transferable Vote are very technical and a small mistake in counting can have a bearing on the outcome. In this case the error was due to a miscommunication of one particular detail.

In light of this discovery, and in the interest of ensuring that the result was fair, we requested a recount by ERS using a method agreed by our Elections Committee. As a result there has now been a reordering of our list of London-wide candidates for the London Assembly.