London’s Mayoral election on Thursday
'Pakistan Times' UK Bureau

LONDON (UK): The incumbent Mayor of London Ken Livingstone face a most challenging task yet in the Thursday’s British capital Mayoral election , with Conservative party MP Boris Johnson and former police chief Brian Paddock of Liberal Democrat Party poised to stretch him to the limits.

Housing, transport, gun crime and Olympic funding have dominated the campaign in the run up to the crucial election, as the three major parties pulled out all stops to claim the control of the City Hall and with it 11 billion pounds spending budget.

The polls have put Livingstone and Johnson in a neck and neck race and if the 43-year old Oxford educated Tory MP and former television game show panellist pull off one of the biggest upsets in recent political history, it could well pave the way for Conservative Party success in the next UK parliamentary polls.

Analysts says Boris will have dealt a crushing psychological blow to Labour morale by putting out of power its most important figure at a time when a faltering Prime Minister Gordon Brown can ill afford more turmoil.

In addition to these three main candidates, there are seven others in the fray from the right-wing British National Party to Green Party.

Ken Livingstone,62, who won the elections in 2000 and 2004 has strong support in ethnic minorities and is strongly banking on the support of capital’s Muslim community to return him to office for another term of four years.

The polls open at 7 am and continue till 10 in the evening.

The Londoners will also be voting for 32-member London Assembly whose one key contestant is MP George Galloway, a keen Pakistan supporter.●