Waiting for the result

I'm a bundle of nervous energy this morning. Couldn't sleep last night and felt restless. The day has finally arrived, when we'll see whether all the work we've done has made any difference.

I got a call late last night from one of our Tower Hamlets councillors and a colleague, eager to know whether I was at the count and when the result was expected. They were just about to go out the door until I told them that it won't be till this afternoon. So a few hours' work and then off to Newham Leisure Centre to see how it all went. I've got a few supporters down at the count this morning, to monitor the verification of ballots. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, I won't hear from them until I see them

Woke up to the news on the radio though that Labour have done badly in those local elections which declared last night. The BBC calculates a 40% turnout with the Tories on 38%, us on 30% and Labour on 26%. Who know how this will translate in the capital; one of the toughest things about this election has been the range of competing issues which mean that it's unlikely we'll be able to draw a single message from the different polls.

Just for reference, here was the City and London East result last time, in 2000:

London Assembly election for City and London East constituency, 2000

Name	Party	Votes	Percentage
John Biggs	Labour	45,387	45.9
Syed Kamall	Conservative	19,266	19.5
Janet Ludlow	Liberal Democrat	18,300	18.5
Peter Howell	Green	11,939	12.1
Kambiz Boomla	London Socialist Alliance	3,908	4.0
		Total votes	%
	Majority	26,121	26.4
	Turnout	98,800	24.7

Source: BBC