http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/05/europe/uk-london-mayoral-race/index.html ,
(CNN)Londoners will find out Friday if they have elected the first Muslim mayor of any major Western city, after an unusually bitter campaign in which race and religion have proven ugly flashpoints.
The race between Labour's Sadiq Khan, son of a bus driver, and Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, son of a billionaire, has seen the latter accused of peddling "vile race politics" in his campaign against his rival.
Khan, a 45-year-old lawyer and member of Parliament, is the London-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and a practicing Muslim in a city where his co-religionists comprise about 12% of the population.
Elections were held across the United Kingdom on Thursday, for mayoral positions, local council seats, and parliamentary and assembly seats in Scotland and Wales.
The results of the elections are not expected until Friday.
The campaign took a particularly vicious turn when Goldsmith, trailing his rival in polls, penned a controversial column in Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper on May 1.
They are just trying to copy us having a muslim President.
