UK casts 'Super Thursday' votes for new London mayor

Londoners as well as voters in three other UK cities today cast their votes in local elections that could see the British capital get its first-ever Muslim mayor.
Referred to as 'Super Thursday', the polling also covers votes for new mayors in Bristol, Liverpool and Salford as well as parliamentary by-elections in Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside.
Polls are also taking place for the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly of Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly and for 124 councils in England.
However, not everything went smoothly after a number of voters were turned away from booths in Barnet, north London, due to errors on the electoral lists.

"We are advising people who were unable to vote this morning to return again before the polling stations close if at all possible. We apologise for the problems we have experienced," a Barnet Council statement said.
Earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron arrived with his wife, Samantha, at a Westminster polling station to cast his vote, presumably in favour of his Conservative Party's London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith.

Labour's mayoral candidate SadiqKhan voted at his local polling station in Streatham, south London, while Goldsmith voted in Barnes, southwest London.
Khan, 45, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, is believed to be leading the race to take over from Boris Johnson as London mayor and has held on to a strong lead throughout the mayoral campaign.

Khan has relied on his working class roots and upbringing on a London council housing estate as strong credentials against Goldsmith's more privileged background as the son of late billionaire James Goldsmith.
Experts say that the race is not yet decided as a low turnout could change things at the last moment.
Polling across the UK will close at 10 pm today and results will begin pouring in gradually from about 11 pm with final results not expected before tomorrow afternoon.
The mayor of Londonis elected under a "supplementary vote" system where voters indicate theirfirst and secondpreference candidates.
If no candidate receives over half of the first-preference votes, the top two candidatesproceed to asecond round, where the other candidates are eliminated and second-preference votes are distributed between the two remaining contenders.

Today's polls are being seen as the single largest test of public opinion before the next UK general election which is scheduled for 2020.