Conservative Anthony Stansfeld has been elected as the Thames Valley police and crime commissioner despite securing only a meagre total of the electorate.
Mr Stansfeld saw off competition from Labour’s Tim Starkey as he secured the second preference vote with 18,227 to Mr Starkey’s 13,772.
With only 13.3% voting in the election, Mr Stansfeld once won 4.47% of the entire electoral vote’s first preference.
Despite this the Tory remained pleased to be voted into office and said he understood the low turnout.
He said: “It’s been five months and I’m delighted it’s all finished now. If you have an election in the middle of the winter when it’s dark in the mornings and in the evenings and there are things on TV the last thing they want to do is go to a polling station.”
Only 13.9% of people voted in the Aylesbury Vale with the highest percentage in the Thames Valley at West Berkshire where 15.7% turned out and the lowest at Slough and Oxford City (10.9%).
It is believed the national average will be well below 20% with the elections costing more than £75 million and taking two years to set up.
The Conservative candidate Anthony Stansfeld secured 76,011 votes in the first preference vote with Labour’s Tim Starkey getting 56,631 votes. However, he could not secure a majority of more than 50% so the vote went to second preference.
The public took to social media to express their dismay at the elections. Sarah Fraser said on Twitter: “On the basis not one candidate provided info about themselves/ideas to me, I felt not able to vote sensibly. So no vote.”
