Today the election gets real. After what seems like a very long wait after the result of the mayoral referendum nominations for the Croydon mayor and members of the Council will close today at 4pm.

Once the nominations close, the officers in the Electoral Services department at Croydon Council will verify the documentation and a list will be produced with the names of all the candidates standing this year.

Obviously there is a great deal of interest in the Mayoral vote and other than the current declared candidates there has been some speculation that there may be as many as 10 candidates putting themselves forward.

Other news that has dropped into the CRO’s mailbox is the effort by the Taking the Initiative Party’s candidate Farah London who has caused a stir by publicising her idea for Croydon’s first youth mayor and direct mailing Croydon residents asking for nominations. Bit of a problem with that as Croydon has already had its first youth mayor. William Awomoyi (pictured below with deputy youth mayor Shea Williams) had a dazzlingly successful term as the Young Mayor of Croydon before his move to study at the University of Cambridge. Mr Awomoyi was later elected as the UK Youth Ambassador to the Commonwealth.

Whoever has put their names forward the next few weeks will prove to be an interesting and exciting time for Croydon as we choose our first directly elected Mayor. Don’t forget to sign up for the CRO’s email updates to get the latest news from the election trail.

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