New Young Mayor for Newham » Communities » 24dash.com

After weeks of election fever, young people across Newham have chosen Joshua Adejokun as the next Young Mayor.

Fourteen year-old Joshua from Custom House was named as Young Mayor, receiving 1,655 votes. He takes over from the first Young Mayor, Zuhayb Ahmed.

Returning Officer and Chief Executive of Newham Council, Joe Duckworth, announced the results last night after the count took place at the Town Hall, East Ham.

In second place was Tommy Seagull, who secured 1,226 votes. Tommy becomes Deputy Young Mayor.

The 13 runners-up will form the core of the Youth Council, who will support and advise the Young Mayor and his Deputy. The Young Mayor will have a £25,000 budget and he and his council will decide how it will be spent. They will also direct over £400,000 of Youth Opportunity Fund money into local projects providing things to do and places to go for young people.

Joshua said: I would like to thank all of my supporters especially my family and friends. I will take this responsibility very seriously and represent young people as best I can.

I ran for Young Mayor because I have a passion for making changes. My key priorities are reducing teenage crime, increasing recycling and using more renewable sources of energy.

Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales congratulated all the candidates for taking part in the election. He said: Im extremely impressed with how the candidates managed their campaigns. Every one of them is a credit to the borough. Standing for election is one of the hardest things to do.

Well done to Joshua. I wish him all the best for the coming year I'm sure he'll do a great job. I have no doubt that he and his Youth Council will work hard to represent the young people of Newham.

Sir Robin thanked outgoing Young Mayor Zuhayb Ahmed for all his achievements and said he hoped that he would continue to play an important role in Newham. He said: Zuhayb is a hard act to follow. He has done a magnificent job. He fought hard for young people and delivered.

Handing over the Young Mayors badge of office to Joshua, Zuhayb said: I would like to thank the Youth Council, support officers, the Mayor and Chief Executive for all their support throughout the year.

A few people said to me that we couldnt achieve much in one year. But look at the number of young people voting this year almost 10,000 young people voted double the figure from last year. This is a fantastic result the turnout for voting this year has been tremendous and we have a great model for young peoples involvement to build upon.

Its been really exciting to see young people who were nominees and candidates in 2007 and on last years Youth Council staying involved this year that continuity of involvement is really important as well.

Eleven to 17-year-olds who live, work or study in Newham were eligible to vote at schools, colleges and Connexions Shops throughout the borough.

72 nominations were received in the first round. This was whittled down to 15 candidates after an online primary election.

Each candidate received training on campaigning techniques and appointed their own campaign manager and teams.

The number of votes cast for each candidate was:

Adebayo Odusola 378
Aisha Khan 183
Eduardo Da Costa 267
Falak Ali 1,214
Hannah Agboola 741
Jathusiya Premananth 487
Jatin Arora 322
Joshua Adejokun 1,655
Latifa Bhariwala 317
Lucky Kaur 220
Muhammad Uddin 789
Seyi Akiwowo 884
Shama Anwar 922
Tommy Seagull 1,226
Zainab Ahmed 356

Total number of votes cast was 9,991
Turnout was 43.34 per cent