Every four years Croydon Council holds elections for all 70 of its seats. At the last council elections in 2018, 267 candidates stood for office and 104,956 votes were cast and counted in one night. It’s a huge exercise in local democracy involving council officers from all level and experienced casual workers who supervise the polling stations in the day and yet more who come in to check and count the ballots on election night. Results come in throughout the night and normally by about 3am the political make-up of the new council will be becoming clear.

This year however, things are going to be very different. After last October’s governance referendum Croydon Council is changing the way that things are run. Croydon will now have a directly elected executive Mayor whose daily decisions and policymaking will be scrutinised by the ward councillors who make up the full council. This vote will be done by single transferable vote, which is the method used in the London and other metropolitan mayoral contests in the UK. (more details here)

The two largest parties have already selected their candidates with the Conservatives fielding Councillor Jason Perry, who is a long serving Croydon councillor and the leader of the minority group on the Council at the moment. Labour have nominated Valerie Shawcross CBE, herself a former leader of Croydon Council and Deputy Mayor of London. The Greens have also selected their candidate Peter Underwood, who is a veteran of many Council elections in Croydon. So far there is no word on the Liberal Democrat candidate.

There are some persistent rumours on the Croydon twitter-sphere about independent candidates preparing to run as executive mayor. It is not clear at the moment if there are going to be any non-aligned candidates and if there are how many of them?

The CRO will be keeping an eye on who is standing and what they actually stand for.

The nominations close on 5th April and things will become clearer then. The CRO will be watching the countdown to nomination day.