Disheartened Green Party candidate Rashid Nix said he thought he was ‘playing for second’ after coming third in the race for Lambeth and Southwark GLA seat.
Mr Nix only received 25,793 of the votes allowing Conservative’s Robert Flint to pip him to the post for second place with 34,703.
Florence Eshalomi was announced as the new Lambeth and Southwark Assembly Member, receiving 96,946 votes and maintaining Labour’s strong hold on the position.
Mr Nix said: “I apologise to my team, Lambeth and Southwark, my agent because when it came down to it, in my mind I was playing for second. That’s the way I’m thinking about it.
“I was like we could take the Tories easy and at the hustings we’d wipe the floor with them so when it then translates at the polls that you lose to people you defeated you think urghh.”
He sought election to redress the borough’s democratic deficit, his candidacy coming from a desire to represent people from all parts of the area.
The former cameraman and film-maker believed he had the requisite skills for the role, having worked in education and said he knew the needs of the people he hoped to serve.
Despite his disappointment, he agreed that the Green Party was at a tipping point, saying that they are the only party which doesn’t “serve up the same or the politics of fear.”
He said: “Everyone else is in suits but I came down in my fly boy glasses. Check the shoes.
“We make sure that we don’t look like any other candidate, we make sure that we don’t sound like any other candidate and our policies when you look at them compared to what other people are serving up, there’s none that are even coming near to us so for us it’s a perfect platform.”
He was complimentary about Ms Eshalomi who emerged victorious over six rival parties.
He said: “I’ll be magnanimous. Councillor Florence or Assembly member Florence, I really congratulate her on the way we came together and I have a lot of time for Florence.”
In spite of Mr Nix’s loss, the Green Party has had a successful day with Sian Berry set to come in third position in the Mayoral election.
