Nicky Williams won police commissioner vote in Plymouth and Exeter
CITY councillor Nicky Williams topped the vote for Police and Crime Commissioner in Plymouth and Exeter, a breakdown of last week's ballot reveals.
Cllr Williams came third overall in the battle to take the job of running the Devon and Cornwall Police Force.
But she was eliminated after the first round of counting in the two-stage election process, narrowly missing out on the second spot.
The winner of the election – by a clear margin – was the Conservative candidate, retired Royal Navy veteran Tony Hogg.
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Brian Greenslade, the former Liberal Democrat leader of Devon County Council, came second, running as an independent.
Just over 15 per cent of those registered actually voted in last Thursday's election, one of the worst turn-outs in history.
Plymouth was the most apathetic of all the regions in the force area.
Jenny Watson, chair of the Electoral Commission, said: "The low turnout is a concern for everyone who cares about democracy.
"These were new elections taking place at an unfamiliar time of year, which is why we have made clear at every stage that it would be important to engage effectively with voters.
"The Government took a number of decisions about how to run these elections that we did not agree with.
"But what is important now is that the right lessons are learnt: we will talk to voters, candidates and returning officers to understand what worked and what didn't.
"The commission is going to undertake a thorough review, and we will present our findings to Parliament in early 2013."
According to detailed figures for the first count, Cllr Williams, the official Labour Party candidate, won in Plymouth with 5,873 votes against Mr Hogg's 5,740.
The official Lib Dem candidate, Brian Blake, from Yealmpton, came third with 2,426 votes.
Plymouth publican Tam Macpherson, the landlord of Union Street's the Clipper Inn, was last with 765 votes.
There were ten candidates in total, the most for any of the country's 41 police authorities involved in the election process.
In Exeter the votes were:
Nicky Williams 3,250
Tony Hogg 2,957
Brian Greenslade 1,560.
Ms Williams' worst performance was in East Devon, where she took just 6.9 per cent of the vote.
Mr Hogg only narrowly beat Mr Blake (3,233 votes to 3,135) in Torbay.
He effectively guaranteed his final victory in Cornwall.
Mr Hogg took 18,432 votes in the county, almost 10,000 ahead of Mr Blake, his nearest rival.
Comments
by CharlieDodd
Thursday, November 22 2012, 6:50PM
“..'Labour Cllr Williams came third overall'..
Ni mind luv, it's just that people are put off by that 'Labour' tag hanging round your neck like an albatross, so people were getting their own back against Evans and Milliband by not voting for you..:)”
by blackpot
Thursday, November 22 2012, 5:59PM
“Thank god she lost,ive met her,totally full of herself,yuk.”
by ewan55
Thursday, November 22 2012, 5:35PM
“What are you all moaning about you now have an action man ...Tony Hogg .... running things and not those useless politicians who ran the Police Authority. Have you seen the mans CV, lets hope he uses his energy to kick some a**s.”
by 1500winger
Thursday, November 22 2012, 3:48PM
“Plymouth was the most apathetic of all the regions in the force area-------------It wasn't apathy, it was sheer disbelief that in these times of supposed austeriry we have had forced upon us yet another public sector leech costing us £75K+ per annum added to which we must include the costs of staff, cars, offices and gold plated pensions etc. etc.Thats why I personally didn't vote”
by JMonners
Thursday, November 22 2012, 12:52PM
“she lost she didnt win anything”
by tinnedfingers
Thursday, November 22 2012, 11:49AM
“Quite right Nevman. Whatever the 'democratic deficit' with the Police Authority at least it represented different interests, including those of urban areas, in the two counties. What a dim idea the PC is.”
by Nevman
Thursday, November 22 2012, 11:39AM
“Perhaps it's reporting on Exeter and Plymouth, hongkongfue, because Plymouth and Exeter are the two areas which voted counter to the rest of the area and that difference might be considered to be significant in some way (possibly connected with the inherent problem of lumping a small number of urban areas in with a large rural hinterland whose policing requirements are very different) and therefore worth drawing to people's attention.
It's called 'news'. If you don't like news, I suggest you go and read some propaganda instead. You'll be less informed, but at least you'll be happy.”
by Waltersmith
Wednesday, November 21 2012, 11:19PM
“@hongkongfue
?
Slanted to the left - the Herald is about as right as you can get”
by hongkongfue
Wednesday, November 21 2012, 10:27PM
“this is not news. the author of this story should be ashamed and seems to very slanted to the left. I would have understood had the paper just reported about plymouth but why mention exeter???? you haven't mentioned torquay, truro, honiton, barnstaple where clearly miss williams didnt win or it would have been added to the list.
someone in the herald has an unhealthy agenda.”