London Assembly Selection Process: Strong candidate, weak candidate, paper candidate?

 

Next year, the election of the Mayor of London will happen with a new electoral system. The system of first and second preferences has been abandoned and it will be run with a first past the post system. Whoever has most votes will win.

The election of Assembly Members will continue to be run with two systems: one for London Constituencies and another for the London Wide List - still giving other political parties other than the major parties the opportunity to have representatives elected.

During the selection process, due to the present situation in the Conservative Party, it has been reported that the pool of candidates has been limited due to the struggle of allegiances and that it has not been possible to include on the short-list strong gunners for Mayoral Candidate, but merely candidates with very limited public profile and some with no political experience. Some were left with the impression that the war of allegiances has left the Conservative Party without somebody that could really challenge Sadiq Khan. Will something similar happened when it comes to select constituency candidates and londo-wide list candidates?

What happened in these year local elections, could happen again next year in the London Elections. On top of two by-elections caused by political disagreements, we have to add by-elections caused by sexual misconduct.