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Susana MendonçaPolitical reporter, BBC London
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The local elections took place on 7 May
Nine by-elections are to be held this summer to replace candidates voted into office at the London local elections earlier this month, some of whom were found to be ineligible to take up their posts.
Of those, eight were from the Green Party, which has been criticised by opposition parties for poor vetting procedures. The ninth was won by Labour.
Reasons include candidates who were teachers not being allowed to take up their seats due to election rules and elected mayors standing down from their council seats as they are not permitted to hold two posts at once.
The estimated bill is likely to be about £250,000.
PA
Green Party leader Zack Polanski (centre) with Lewisham and Hackney mayoral election winners Liam Shrivastava and Zoë Garbett
The two new Green Party elected mayors, Zoë Garbett in Hackney and Liam Shrivastava in Lewisham, where the Greens took control of former Labour-run boroughs, had to vacate the council seats they also won - as they are not allowed to hold both roles.
It is usual in cases where a candidate wins an elected mayoralty and a council seat for a by-election to be held afterwards for the council seat.
Reuters
Zoë Garbett celebrates winning the Hackney mayoral contest with Green Party leader Zack Polanski
Two of the Green candidates who had to quit - James Tilden in Hackney Central ward and Muhammad Naser in Camden's Regent's Park ward - are teachers and therefore ineligible.
Joanna Eaves in Lambeth's Clapham Park ward and Simon Anthony, in Ealing's Acton North ward, are understood to have quit after the election due to ill health.
In Haringey the Green Party said it had known prior to the election that its candidate, Jayon Henriques, was not eligible to stand in Northumberland Park ward, but said it was only made aware of the disqualification after the deadline for nominations had closed.
One of the candidates who went on to win in Streatham St Leonard's ward in Lambeth, Saiqa Ali, had been suspended by the Green Party prior to the election over alleged antisemitic social media posts. She told the BBC earlier this month she rejected all forms of discrimination and racism. Lambeth Council's website shows that she has not taken up her seat, which is currently vacant.
A Labour councillor who won a seat in Haringey's Woodside ward, Hasret Bozdogan, has chosen to step down for "personal reasons that transpired after 7 May".
The Local Government Act 1972
A person is disqualified from standing as a councillor if they:
- are employed by the local authority
- are subject to bankruptcy orders
- have been convicted of a criminal offence within five years of being elected
- are disqualified due to corrupt or illegal electoral practices
- are employed by the Greater London Authority in a politically restricted post
- are a teacher in a school maintained by the local authority.
The cost of holding by-elections varies according to the size of the electorate, the number of polling stations needed, the cost of sending out postal votes and polling cards and staffing.
Ealing Council told the BBC the expected cost of its by-election would be around £35,000.
Camden and Lambeth said it would cost around £30,000 per by-election.
Hackney, Haringey and Lewisham did not tell us how much the additional elections would cost local taxpayers.
EPA/Shutterstock
Tellers at the local election count in Lewisham in south-east London
A Labour Party spokesperson said Green candidates "were elected despite never being qualified to stand in the first place".
They added: "Taxpayers are now being forced to pick up the bill for the Greens' incompetence."
A Green Party spokesperson said the numbers standing down were a "very small proportion" of the 297 seats the party won across London.
Upcoming by-elections in London:
Hillingdon x 2 (these vacancies are due to candidate death)
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