Mamdani takes the lead in NYC Democratic primary for mayor

New Yorkers are choosing the Democratic nominee for this year's general mayoral election in November. Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist, took a lead in the initial round.

New York state Assembly member Zohran Mamdani held an early lead over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday.

But New Yorkers will have to wait at least a week, if not more, to find out who wins the Democratic nomination because Mamdani appears to have fallen short of securing a majority in the first round of the ranked-choice voting system.

New York City uses a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to number their candidates in order of preference.

If no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote share in the initial round, the candidate with the fewest votes gets knocked out, and the votes that went to them get redistributed.

This system calls for multiple rounds of vote counting if no candidate reaches 50% in the initial tally.

More to follow...

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar

Author: Rana Taha (with Reuters, AP)