AS the dust settles after the local elections in Southampton the city's voters may be wondering whether their ballots will make much difference.
Despite giving the Liberal Democrats a clobbering at the polls - they lost two seats apiece to the Tories and Labour, now both on 18 - the council remains deadlocked, with no party able to claim a clear mandate to run the city.
For the sixth election running, bar an unprecedented deal, residents can expect a minority administration, handicapped from day one.
The familiar routine of cross-party deal making to get a council leader elected finally began last week.
The council's 48 members will vote for the appointment at the annual meeting on Wednesday.
But is it now time to end the annual stalemate and horse-trading and let the electorate directly choose a leader?
Should Southampton now consider moving to a US-style directly elected mayor?
The constitutional innovation has been on offer since 2000, although was rejected by political parties in Southampton when they moved from the old committee system to a leader and Cabinet.
Of the 376 districts across England and Wales, 34 have now held referendums on whether to change to directly elected mayors, and 13 have appointed them, including London.
Middlesbrough's steely "Robo-Mayor," formerly hardline detective superintendent Ray Mallon, and Stuart Drummond, a former football mascot who was elected Mayor of Hartlepool as "H'Angus the Monkey", are perhaps the best known and seen by many as a success.
Both have been re-elected for second four-year terms.
In London Ken Livingstone has won criticism and plaudits for his efforts to tackle congestion and improve public transport services. He, too, is serving a second term after being re-elected.
Local government expert David Kett, who has lectured on the subject for more than 30 years, believes an elected mayor would make local government much more accountable providing residents with a stable, recognizable and transparent leader.
"It's rather like a presidential system at local level," he says.
The higher profile and more powerful role would attract better candidates than many would-be councillors, he feels.
New French president Nicolas Sarkozy was formerly mayor of a Paris suburb and Rudolph Giuliani, widely praised for transforming New York and providing leadership in the wake of 9/11 attacks, is now a presidential candidate for 2008.
"As long as you have poor councillors you have poor services," Mr Kett said.
Yet many on Southampton City Council prefer the status quo.
Outgoing council leader Adrian Vinson, who has led a minority administration for the past four years, said: "The experience of locally-elected mayors outside London has been at best patchy.
"Of the small number of authorities which have opted for that system several are now considering abandoning it.
"I don't believe that an elected mayor would be likely to bring significant advantages in Southampton, not least as any such individual would continue to need the support of the elected council."
Cllr Vinson said a mayor would still need to get to grips with and work with a politically divided council.
Labour group leader June Bridle also seemed to slam the door shut on the idea.
"The authorities that I know of have regretted it," she says. "I was in Torbay only a matter of weeks ago where their mayor was elected with a tiny majority (in October 2005).
"Hartlepool stuck up a mascot. Doesn't that bring it into disrepute? I rate our city more highly than that.
"I have heard of no authority where it works well. The exception is probably London but that's a whole different ball game.
"Whoever it is comes from a particular party and will have some allegiance.
"You will just get a lot of people angry with and blaming one person.
"Personally I'm not in favour of it and it's not something I would back."
However, civic strongmen will move up the agenda this year as the government continues to push the idea with a Bill expected to receive assent into the autumn.
It will make it easier to switch to a mayoral model and harder to get rid of one.
Councils will no longer have to hold a referendum to decide to have directly elected mayors; instead they need merely "consult" voters.
Although as now, voters can still petition for a referendum for a mayor if they gather signatures from five per cent of the electorate - in Southampton that is 8,471.
It is also expected David Cameron's Conservative policy review will come out in favour of elected mayors.
Southampton Tory group deputy leader Royston Smith said there were differing opinions with his party ranks, but some were warming to the idea.
"In 2000 I was against it because I thought it would put too much power in one person and you would get an elected dictator.
"But now I'm more open-minded to it because we are having this stalemate every year and it's not good governance."
He added: "I'm warming to it more on a personal level. I think it depended on how well you scrutinise it.
"If the government won't allow us to go back to the committee system maybe we need to look forward to an elected mayor."
Cllr Smith said two or three party members were considering putting it on the political agenda next year.
He added: "If we did decide to do it we would have several people in our party who could fill the candidate slot."
Gerry Stoker, professor of politics and governance at the University of Southampton and founder of the New Local Government Network think-tank, has carried out extensive research into directly elected mayors.
He challenged claims that elected mayors had not worked, pointing to the simple fact they were getting elected.
May 3 saw the re-election of mayors in Middlesbrough, Bedford and Mansfield.
Mr Stoker said: "I think the councillors have a fair point if they are saying the mayoral model depends on the capabilities and skill of one individual but there are plenty of skilled people out there."
He said up and down the country elected mayors operated with balanced councils and four of the 12 mayors are independents - not in the pockets of local political parties.
He said: "The majority have to operate by building support for the good of the community."
Mr Stoker added: "The attraction of the elected mayor is that you have representation from all the parties in the wider council making sure all voices are heard while you have a strategic leadership that has capacity to make decisions and get things done."
His research found that in the opinion of people close to the system, such as council officials and other stakeholders, mayors were more effective and streamlined in decision-making.
However, he admitted turnout for the mayoral referendums was broadly similar to the third of the electorate who voted in local elections for councillors.
He said it suggested a deep disengagement with local government.
Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test and a former leader of Southampton City Council for 12 years from 1984, said the idea of electing a mayor deserved consideration.
Dr Whitehead said: "I can see the attractions in it but the way elected mayors in cities have gone so far has not been a terribly good advert for them.
"You might get a strong figure - but you might get a mascot for your local football club.
"On balance, it is something that looks like a good idea but requires rather a lot of examination.
"Concentrating power in one person's hands can be very good news - or a disaster."
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