Of the 25 London Assembly seats up for grabs, 14 are traditional constituencies covering two or more local council areas and 11 are allocated according to vote share.
At each of the four elections since the Greater London Authority was established in 2000 the 14 constituency seats have all been won by Labour and the Conservatives.
The ‘top up’ list element allows any party with more than 5% support across the capital to also win a seat, ensuring the Assembly better represents the capital’s political make-up.
The Liberal Democrats currently hold two seats on the body which scrutinises the Mayor but have held as many as five and will be hoping to increase the size of their group in next year’s contest.
Both of their current members, Stephen Knight and Caroline Pidgeon, are hoping to be re-selected. Ms Pidgeon is also a contender to be selected as the party’s candidate for Mayor.
The other contenders are: Dawn Barnes, Rob Blackie, Duwayne Brooks, Emily Davey, Merlene Emerson, Brian Haley, Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett, Teena Lashmore, Ben Mathis, Annabel Mullin, Pauline Pearce, Mark Platt, Zack Polanski and Marisha Ray.
Party members will rank each of the sixteen hopefuls in order of preference and the top 11 will make it onto the party’s final list at next year’s election.
Assembly seats are allocated to candidates in the order that they appear on a party’s published list so those occupying the top slots have the best chance of being elected.
