Early Returns Show Londoners Want a Mayor

LONDON —  The people of this capital, an ancient seat of government that doesn’t have a government of its own, apparently decided Thursday that their city ought to have a mayor.

Early election returns showed that voters appeared to be approving a proposal to create a central governing authority and an elected mayor for this metropolis of 7.5 million, a capital city since the Romans founded Londinium two millenniums ago. With four of 33 districts counted, 77% of voters supported the measure.

Except for the appointed Lord Mayor, a ceremonial figure, metropolitan London has never had its own central government. Public functions are split between the national government and 32 local boroughs.

Voting also took place in local elections across England--putting to the test the record popularity ratings Prime Minister Tony Blair has enjoyed since his Labor Party’s landslide victory in national elections a year ago.

Urging the 5 million voters in the capital to say yes to an elected mayor, Blair said: “It’s our chance for the future to get the right structure for London and get a big, powerful figure for London.”

The plan for a London mayor and 25-member assembly also was backed by the Conservatives and the third-running Liberal Democrats.

Although the mayor would not be elected until 1999, campaigning is underway for party nominations.

The most popular figure, straw polls show, is a leftist Labor lawmaker, Ken Livingstone, onetime head of the Greater London Council--dissolved by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1986. Livingstone doesn’t get along much better with Blair.