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May 7th - Election Day

Today was the culmination of all the candidates had worked for over the past months, and in some cases, years. During the day, I visited a number of polling stations in Peckham, and cast my vote - for myself! - which is a fantastic feeling.

The most exciting part of the day is really the night after when the count happens. The count for Camberwell and Peckham took place in Southwark Town Hall in Tooley Street, between London Bridge and London City Hall. The count for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark also took place there.

The count began slowly with the postal votes being counted first, and it seemed that there was quite a large number of votes for UKIP among the postal vote. It didn't really get underway until about 12.30 a.m. however, when all of the ballot boxes arrived from the polling stations.

The result for Bermondsey and Old Southwark was declared at about 4 a.m., by which time I was in need of much sleep, and coffee. Simon Hughes, who had held the seat for 32 years was ousted by Labour's Neil Coyle. However, he left office with great dignity.

The result for my constituency - Camberwell and Peckham - was declared at about 4.30 a.m. As expected, Harriet Harman of Labour retained the seat and even increased her majority due to the collapse of the Liberal Democrat vote. I picked up 4.7% of the vote for UKIP - not bad considering there was no candidate last time in a very safe Labour seat.

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