In London an electorate of more than five million people will have the opportunity to vote for their representatives in the European Parliament (called Members of the European Parliament or MEPs). Candidates backed by political parties as well as independent candidates will compete for eight seats to represent the entire population of the capital.

The European Parliamentary Elections are run using a form of proportional representation. Voters have one vote only. This vote can be cast for either a political party or an independent candidate. Each political party submits a list of candidates in priority order.

Parties win more seats (which are then allocated to the candidates on the list in priority order) according to the overall share of the vote the party receives. As MEPs represent the whole of London everybody who is eligible to vote in the capital will be voting for the same list of parties and candidates.

This is how the London seats were allocated in the last election in 2009, followed by MEPs, all of whom are standing again:

• Conservatives 3 seats (27% of the vote) - Syed Kamall, Charles Tannock, Marine Yannakoudakis
• Labour 2 (21%) - Mary Honeyball, Claude Moraes
• Liberal Democrats 1 (14%) - Sarah Ludford
• Green 1 (11%) - Jean Lambert
• UKIP 1 (11%) - Gerard Batten

There are candidates from the following parties:

4 Freedoms Party
An Independence from Europe
Animal Welfare Party
British National Party
Christian Peoples Alliance
Communities United Party
Conservative Party
English Democrats
Europeans party
Green Party
Harmony Party
Labour Party
Liberal Democrats
National Health Party
National Liberal Party - True Liberatlism
No2EU
UK Independence Party

A short presentation of the candidates, with photos of some can be read at UKPollingReport

Read more at London Euro Elections 2014

April 25, 2014