On 30 July 2026, voters in Greater Manchester went to the polls to choose a new mayor to replace Andy Burnham, who resigned from the role following his election to the House of Commons in June.
The election used the Supplementary Vote (SV) system, which was reintroduced by Labour ahead of the election, having been scrapped for mayoral contests by the previous Conservative government. SV allows voters to express two preferences, and a candidate is required to receive a majority of votes before being deemed the winner.
The Labour candidate, Bev Craig, won a plurality of the vote in the first round, receiving 47.1% of votes cast. Her nearest rival, Reform UK’s Sian Astley, received 21% of the vote. As no candidate had an overall majority, the five other candidates were eliminated, and their second preferences were counted. After the second round of voting, Bev Craig had 66.3% of the vote to Astley’s 33.7% and was deemed the winner.
This election serves as a good example of several features of SV. The contest required a second round of voting despite Craig’s clear lead after the first round of voting, thereby helping to ensure greater legitimacy for the winner. Under first-past-the-post (FPTP), a simple plurality would have sufficed. Voters are also able to vote for smaller parties without their vote being wasted, as they can express a second preference as well. However, SV requires voters to guess as to who the final two candidates will be. 32.6% of votes were exhausted after the first round, meaning that the voters either did not express a second preference, or their second-choice candidate had already been eliminated. The issue could be avoided with the Alternative Vote (AV), where voters are free to express as many preferences as they wish, whilst still requiring the winning candidate to receive more than 50% of the vote.