Police Commisioner Elections Held, Nobody Bothers To Turn Up

[Zaune]

BBC News

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%.

The chairwoman of the Electoral Commission said the turnout was "a concern for everyone who cares about democracy".

David Cameron said numbers were always going to be low when holding an election for the first time.

"It takes time to explain a new post," the prime minister said, and he predicted voting numbers would be "much higher next time round".

Police and crime commissioners 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.

* In Gwent, where turnout was 14.3% overall, one polling station in Newport was visited by no voters at all
* In the Manchester Central parliamentary by-election, Lucy Powell held the seat for Labour with a majority of 9,936 votes; the turnout of 18.16% is believed to be the lowest in a UK parliamentary by-election since World War II
* In the Cardiff South and Penarth by-election, Labour's Stephen Doughty held with a majority of 5,334; turnout was 25.65%
* Labour's Andy Sawford won the Corby by-election, becoming the first Labour candidate in 15 years to take a Tory seat in a by-election. It was seen as a crucial mid-term test of Mr Cameron's premiership
* Former Labour deputy prime minister Lord Prescott appeared to have lost his bid in Humberside, with Conservative Matthew Grove taking the role
* In Wales, two of the four elections for PCCs were won by independents, including Winston Roddick who became the first independent to be elected, with a victory in North Wales
* Former police chief Martyn Underhill, who was second in charge during the Sarah Payne murder investigation, has been voted Dorset's first police and crime commissioner
* In the first election for a mayor in Bristol, independent George Ferguson won

There's quite a lot I'd like to say about this, but someone else has beaten me to the punch rather more eloquently and with less profanity:

Well, my little rant about the Police Commissioner Elections yesterday hardly encouraged the burghers of the Black Country to vote in droves: the Dark Place's turnout was 12.87%, and the West Midlands average was even lower: 12.35%. You can guarantee that most of those voters were golf-club fascists voting UKIP, birch-wielding Tories and of course police officers. So even if a single candidate gets 50% of the vote by some miracle, the most they'll command is 6.15% of the region's 5 million+ people.

We shall have to bear this in mind when the next Tory MP claims a strike is illegitimate if fewer than 50% of the members voted. But in the meantime, let's ponder this. When elected mayors were proposed, people got to vote in a referendum on the concept itself. Some places voted yes, others voted no. Hartlepool voted yes, and yesterday decided to abolish the post. So if the Tories are so keen on local democracy, why no referendum?

The answer is, of course, that the like the appearance of democracy rather than the thing itself. That's why they like police commissioners. They've watched a lot of Westerns and really believe that a lone hero can clean up this town. Not coincidentally, that's the argument the Daily Mail and other Tories made about certain other law-and-order types: Mosley, Mussolini and Hitler. Democracy is not served by concentrating power in the hands of a lowest-common-denominator demagogue.

[Crazedwraith]

I didn't vote. I wish I could say it was because of a great stand against this concept but mainly it was because I forgot to do anything with the postal ballot form my parents mailed me.

Still I think this is a silly, wasteful concept but ultimately isn't politicised anyway? I mean in the end all police policy and so on is set by the Home Secretary,

[Dartzap]

I still think calling 'em Police and Crime Commissioners was a daft idea in the first place. Think Exeter was reporting about a 5% turnout.

[Crazedwraith]

Do they commission crime as well? Are we moving to the Vetinari system? Crime is inevitable. So if you're going to have crime it might as well be organised crime.

[UnderAGreySky]

I find it annoying that elections aren't held to the same rules that meetings are, which is that if there isn't a fixed quorum of attendees then the election is null and void. Especially in the matters of a vote, this percentage should be fairly higher (40%?) and the outcome should be linked to funding. No turnout? Well, no policing for you. To offset this, HOLD THE DAMN ELECTIONS ON A WEEKEND. Or hold them all week. Weekday elections are stupid.

[Dartzap]

Yep, that's been pretty much the general line thought from those I've nattered to about it. Not a single one of these people will have even the hint of a mandate. The govs line of 'Oh well, try again in 4 years' is a just a bit pathetic.

[DaveJB]

What's really illuminating is that almost a third of the winning commissioners are independent candidates. I'm guessing these are folks who actually took the time to build up their grassroots support and carry out some proper campaigning, rather than just relying on people voting the same way they usually would in a local/general election.

It was also kind of amusing to hear the Tory spokespeople attempting to downplay the drubbing they took in Corby. "Well, yeah, Labour got a majority of 9,000 votes... but... but a REAL victory would have been getting 15,000 more votes than us! All this result proves is that the people around here blame us poor, innocent Tories for Louise Mensch being a quitter!"

[weemadando]

So you're jumping down the American hole of electing every public official, because it's it likely experience or qualifications or respect of their peers/organisation matters, just popular opinion?

[Captain Seafort]

So you're jumping down the American hole of electing every public official, because it's it likely experience or qualifications or respect of their peers/organisation matters, just popular opinion?

If it makes you feel any better, as Zaune said, the vast majority of us are ignoring this nonsense in the hope that it goes away.

[weemadando]

Yeah, low turnout is good.

And I meant to say "not like" rather than "It likely" PHONE KEYBOARDS.

[Zaune]

It was also kind of amusing to hear the Tory spokespeople attempting to downplay the drubbing they took in Corby. "Well, yeah, Labour got a majority of 9,000 votes... but... but a REAL victory would have been getting 15,000 more votes than us! All this result proves is that the people around here blame us poor, innocent Tories for Louise Mensch being a quitter!"

Well, I suppose they've got maintain a pretence that parachuting her into Corby wasn't an act of constructive dismissal.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I voted, and the guy I voted for won The people at the polling station said out of about a thousand, only a few dozen people turned up. Our county actually counted the votes overnight too, not that it would have taken long

[Eternal_Freedom]

Until this thread I did not even know elections were going on. No flyers, no posters around town. There was probably stuff on TV but I'm a student and can't be assed to a) pay the licence fee or b) watch, so I missed it.

Glad to know I missed an utterly vital part of the democratic proceedings of my country.[/sarcasm]

[Minischoles]

The only way I knew it was going on (here in Stoke) was seeing an advert on the side of a bus. No other advertising, no leaflets or attempt to get the message across - just a tiny advert on the side of a few buses with a web page on it.
Which one candidate didn't even bother putting a statement on. I honestly actually forgot it was happening yesterday until I went onto BBC news and saw the main page.
There was something like 11% turnout in Stoke on Trent for this, so the guy running the police now got barely more than 10% of people voting for him.

[Irbis]

So, why people need to vote on someone who should be picked on meritocracy alone, again?

Also, Vetinari joke isn't that unsubstantiated - with such low turnouts, wouldn't it be possible for organized crime to push their guy into the spot and start influencing the local law enforcement for their own ends?