Guidance for the GLRO administering the GLA elections

The following guidance has been produced to support the Greater London Returning Officer (GLRO) in planning for and delivering the Greater London Authority (GLA) elections. 

The guidance has been developed in close consultation with London Elects, and the GLRO. It reflects the GLRO’s legal obligations and what we and London Elects believe that GLROs should expect of their staff in preparing for and delivering the GLA elections.

How to use this guidance

This guidance is directed towards the GLRO and highlights the key considerations in planning for the elections and, the areas in which you should liaise with stakeholders (particularly Constituency Returning Officers (CROs) and Borough Returning Officers (BROs)) to inform your planning in order to ensure consistency across London, and the tools you have available to help you achieve this in practice. 
Throughout the guidance we use ‘must’ to refer to a specific legal requirement and ‘may / should’ for recommended practice.

This guidance covers your role and responsibilities as GLRO, the particular context of the GLA elections, planning for the election and highlights aspects of the election process where early preparations can be undertaken.

It also covers specific parts of the election process that you are responsible for delivering, including:

• the nominations process for the Mayor of London election and 
• the election of London-wide Assembly Members
• the election addresses of Mayor of London candidates
• the results collation and the declaration of the Mayor of London and London-wide Assembly results
  after the declaration of the results

The Commission and London Elects have produced separate guidance for Constituency Returning Officers.
 

This guidance is supplemented by resources which can be accessed through links contained in the guidance.

Should you have any questions about the guidance or any other matter relating to the administration of the polls, our London regional team are available to provide on-going support. We also provide an out-of-hours advice service to deal with urgent electoral administration queries in the run up to and immediately following any scheduled elections. Further information on the provision of our out-of-hours service will be provided through our Bulletin for electoral administrators.