Independent candidate Lutfur Rahman has become the first directly-elected executive mayor of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, securing more than 23,000 first preference votes. His Labour rival and former friend Helal Abbas finished a distant second with 11,254. The Conservative Neil King was third with 5,348 followed by Liberal Democrat John Griffiths with 2,800 and the Green Party's Alan Duffell with 2,300.
Rahman was originally the Labour candidate but was removed by the party's National Executive Committee. Rahman had only been able to enter the selection ballot after making legal challenges to his previous exclusions from candidate shortlists. Complaints were made to the NEC about alleged vote-rigging, misconduct and Rahman being an extremist who had been "brainwashed" by a local Islamic social activist group. Abbas, who was one of the complainants, was imposed in Rahman's place.
Rahman has prevailed despite being accused of being incompetent, corrupt and beholden to local businessmen and shadowy Muslim extremists [see Andrew Gilligan's article in the Telegraph]. He has denied all these things and insisted in his campaign that he would be a mayor for all the different communities of Tower Hamlets, not just the Bangladeshi one to which both he and Abbas belong. He reiterated this promise in his acceptance speech tonight.
He is now in charge of an Olympic borough with a billion pound budget.
