03 Apr Mayoral elections 2024
Mayoral elections take place on Thursday May 2 in 11 councils in England. They are East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, London, North East, North Yorkshire, Salford, South Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West Midlands and West Yorkshire.
For the first time these polls will use the first-past-the-post system, rather than the previous supplementary voting (SV) system . This means that these elections cannot be directly compared with previous ones.
Wire messages for these polls will be sent in plain text (TTY) format.
For details of messages in XML format for digital products, please see the page on XML format under Delivery Methods.
Key dates and times:
- Publication of statement of persons nominated: Friday April 5.
- Polling Day: Thursday May 2 – polling from 0700 to 2200.
- Declarations: To be confirmed.
PA serial numbers for areas with mayoral polls will appear here:
1 – East Midlands
2 – Greater Manchester
3 – Liverpool City Region
4 – London
5 – North East
6 – Salford
7 – South Yorkshire
8 – Tees Valley
9 – West Midlands
10 – West Yorkshire
11 – York & North Yorkshire
Nominations
Nominations for each of the mayoral elections will be sent as soon as possible after they become available on the closing date.
The catchline will be topic ELECTION, keyword Nominations Mayor followed by the specific election. For example, the London mayoral nominations will be catchlined: ELECTION Nominations Mayor London.
The category code will be: XTA
The party order for nominations will be: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green, followed by minor parties ranked alphabetically by party name.
Note that, because each election is a separate entity in our system, XML format nominations and results will have different party IDs for the same parties in the 11 polls. Customers must ensure they use the IDs specific to each poll.
The message may include a historical summary of the result from the previous main election, but this is not confirmed.
Revised sets of mayoral nominations will be sent as necessary in the run-up to polling day, with a final run on the afternoon of Wednesday May 1.
Rushes
As soon as the winner is declared, a rush will be sent.
The catchline will be topic POLL, keyword Mayor followed by the specific election and council serial number. For example, rush with the outcome of the London mayoral election will be catchlined: POLL Mayor London41
The category code will be: XTJ
Fictional examples of the text:
- Sir John James (C) elected at London
Results
Detailed results will be sent after each round of voting.
They will be catchlined POLL Mayor followed by the specific election and council serial number. For example, mayoral results from London will be catchlined: POLL Mayor London 4
The category code will be: XTP
We will give candidates in vote order with their party, vote, vote share and possibly change since the previous elections. although this is not yet confirmed.
If a result has to be corrected, the catchline will be styled POLL Correction Mayor followed by the specific election and constituency number. Example: POLL Correction Mayor London 4. Where there is a change to the winning party a rush correction will be sent, catchlined in the same way.
Party Abbreviations
Parties and abbreviations for the eight mayoral polls will appear here:
Quick Reference Table
Catchlines and category codes:
:: Nominations: ELECTION Nominations Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTA
:: Rush: POLL Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTJ
:: Result: POLL Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTP
:: Rush correction: POLL Correction Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTJ
:: Result correction: POLL Correction Mayor (followed by election and mayoral serial number) – XTP
Elections Live Coverage
All narrative copy, claims/pointers (giving indications for key mayorals in advance of final declarations), reaction and analysis, will run in the general news service. On the wire, these messages will use the usual editorial code: HHH
Tests
We will be sending test results ahead of the election. Fictitious candidate names and voting figures will be generated at random. Please see separate advisory for the provisional test programme.
All test material will be marked clearly as “PA Test” and the word “Test” will appear in fictional candidate names.
You MUST check before polling day that any test material has been cleared from your systems.