Comissioners will be elected to hold the police to account, not run local police forces

 

Police commissioner elections report low turnout

 

The first police and crime commissioners have been elected, as concerns are raised about low turnout in parts of England and Wales.

 

Numerous areas have confirmed turnouts ranging from 13-20%. Elections expert Professor John Curtice said it could be the worst turnout ever but Downing Street said people needed time to get used to the idea of PCCs.

 

So far, Tories have won in Wiltshire and Dyfed-Powys, and Labour candidates in Northumbria and Merseyside. Police and crime commisoners will have powers to hire and fire chief constables and set police strategy and budgets. The government says PCCs will give local people more control over policing, but opponents have warned the changes will politicise the police - and low turnout shows people don't want them.

 

As the election results started to come in on Friday, it became clear many voters had stayed away from the polls.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20352539

It is understood the polling station where nobody turned up to vote is in the Bettws ward in Newport

 

Zero turnout at Newport polling station in PCC election

 

A polling station in the election for Gwent's police and crime commissioner had a turnout of zero.

 

It is understood the polling station is in the Bettws ward in Newport.

 

The turnout across Gwent was 14.3%. The count is going to a second round, with Labour's Hamish Sandison and Independent Ian Johnston battling it out. Voters went to the polls on Thursday when elections were held in all parts of England and Wales outside London.

 

Counting began on Friday morning with results due later for the Gwent, Dyfed-Powys, South Wales and North Wales police force area. There are more than 100 polling stations in Newport.

 

Newport councillor Kevin Whitehead, Independent member for the city's Bettws ward, said it was "staggering" that a polling station had failed to register a single vote.

 

"It's just apathy. I think apathy rules when it comes to politics in general," he said.

 

"People are more concerned with the bigger picture like the recession."

 

Conservative councillor Matthew Evans, who is the leader of the opposition on Newport council, said the fact nobody had voted at a polling station "doesn't show anybody in a particularly good light".

 

However, he said he was not surprised there was a low turnout generally in the elections.

 

"Clearly, if you've got a polling station where nobody turns up, it's extremely disappointing," he said.

 

"It's quite frankly a daft time of the year to have an election - it's cold and miserable.

 

"It wasn't a topic that people felt passionately about."

 

Labour's Newport West MP Paul Flynn, whose constituency includes Bettws, said he believed a lack of enthusiasm for the elections from the Conservative Party which introduced the policy had contributed to the low turnout.

 

But he admitted another factor was the lack of trust in politics and lack of confidence in politicians generally.

 

Meanwhile in the neighbouring South Wales area, with a turrnout of 15.16%, the lowest turnout by area was 11.9% in Merthyr Tydfil.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-20355358

I was voter number 31 (out of just under 1000) when I voted at 17:15...

 

...turnouts were rubbish, the officials were bored