London set to elect Muslim mayor

Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan is tipped to beat Conservative multimillionaire environmentalist Zac Goldsmith

LONDON: London was on track to become the first EU capital with a Muslim mayor as voters went to the polls Thursday after a bitter campaign between Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and the opposition Labour party.

Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan, a former government minister and son of a bus driver from Pakistan, is tipped to beat Conservative multimillionaire environmentalist Zac Goldsmith in the race to run the British capital.

Both men voted shortly after polls opened at 7:00am (0600 GMT): Khan in his multi-ethnic constituency of Tooting in south London, and Goldsmith in his leafy, affluent southwestern suburb of Richmond.

The campaign to replace Conservative Boris Johnson in City Hall has been ugly, with Khan forced to deny support for Islamic extremists and Goldsmith rejecting claims of playing on voters’ religious prejudices.

But many Londoners are more concerned about issues such as the high cost of housing and transport.

“Muslim or non-Muslim, it doesn’t ... matter for the community,” said 57-year-old Koyruz Zoman, a Muslim cook from Whitechapel in the ethnically diverse East End.

“Whoever comes in, we want what they’ve promised.”

The vote was taking place on the same day as regional polls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are expected to leave the balance of power in those regional devolved administrations broadly unchanged.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2016.