Elham Asaad Buaras
An estimated 380 Muslim councillors were elected in England on May 3, constituting 9 per cent of the 4,371 newly elected councillors, according to data exclusively compiled by The Muslim News.
Most of the seats up for election had last been contested in the 2014 local elections, when 277 Muslim councillors were elected, meaning that 103 more Muslim councillors were elected, despite boundaries changes wiping out a significant number of seats.
The result also means Muslims constitute 8.6 per cent of the newly elected councillors an increase of 2.1 per cent.
Like all previous local elections, Muslim Labour councillors dominate the political landscape of Muslim politicians. 341 Muslim Labour councillors were elected this year constituting 90 per cent of all Muslim councillors and 15 per cent of all Labour councillors. A total of 20 Conservative Muslim candidates were elected out of 292 candidates.
Only 39 per cent of elected Muslim councillors are women (Labour 102; Conservative 3; Liberal Democrat 3, Other 1). However, women candidates did surpass their male counterpart success rate, 109 (40+) of 231 Muslim women candidates were elected (47 per cent); compared to the 271 Muslim men elected out of 777 candidates (35 per cent).
Thirty-five per cent of the 150 councils up for election did not have a Muslim candidate.
18 out of 127 Muslim Liberal Democrat candidates were elected, representing 3 per cent of the 536 newly Liberal Democrat councillors).
https://muslimnews.co.uk/newspaper/%newspaper_type%/exclusive-381-newly-elected-muslim-councillors/
