52.The Assembly seats deriving from the London vote will be allocated according to the De Hondt formula, a commonly-used way of allocating seats under proportional representation. When allocating seats in the Assembly on the basis of the London vote, the Greater London Returning Officer (defined in section 29) considers the party affiliation of the constituency candidates who have been returned as members of the Assembly and the number of London votes cast for that party. He then divides the party's total London vote by the number of seats that party has won plus one (one is added to avoid dividing by zero where no seat has been won). The result is known as the party's London figure. Independent candidates are given a London figure equal to their London vote.
53.The first seat is then allocated to the party or individual with the highest London figure. When a seat is allocated to a party, its London figure is recalculated on the basis of the new total number of seats plus one. The next seat is then allocated on the basis of the highest London figure at that stage, after which the winning party's London figure is similarly recalculated, until all 11 seats have been allocated. Should two parties tie for the last seat, their figures are recalculated as though each party had one more seat and the one whose London figure is the highest gets the seat. If the tie continues the matter is to be settled by lot. A threshold for election as a London member of the Assembly is set in paragraph 7 of Schedule 2. A party or independent candidate failing to win at least 5% of the total of London votes will not be allocated any of the London member seats.
54.A worked example is set out below:
55.In this worked example, the fourteen Assembly constituency seats are shared between parties A, B, and C as follows:
56.The eleven London-wide seats are contested by the three parties and by one independent candidate. The votes cast are as follows:
57.The eleven London-wide seats are then distributed on the basis of these figures as follows:
Guideline for the calculation of London-wide seats:
Commentary on Sections Part I: the Greater London Authority Voting for the Assembly