The result of the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner elections

The successful candidate in the 2016 Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner elections is Katy Bourne, who was elected with a total of 139,335 votes in a two stage count following voting which took place across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove yesterday.

The runner-up was Michael Jones, who received a total of 86,392 first and second preference votes.

Under the Supplementary Voting System, which is used for Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England, the first preference votes of all candidates are counted and any candidate with more than 50 per cent of the first preference votes is duly elected.

The first preference votes of all the candidates in the Sussex PCC election were as follows:

Katy Bourne  114,570 votes, 41.78%

James Doyle 26,038 votes,  9.49%

Michael Jones 61,017 votes, 22.25%

Patrick Lowe 43,075 votes, 15.71%

James Walsh 29,550 votes, 10.77%

A total of 7,288 ballot papers were rejected.

As no candidate had more than 50 per cent of the votes cast, the two leading candidates went through to a second stage of the count when any second preference votes they have received on the other candidates’ ballot papers were added to their first preference vote total. This process determined which candidate was elected.

Election counts took place in 13 local authorities in East Sussex and West Sussex and was co-ordinated by Wealden District Council. The turnout was 23%.

Sussex Police Area Returning Officer Charles Lant thanked every one who helped with election by either staffing some 730 polling stations on 5 May or helping at the counts that took place on 6 May, he said: “Nearly 3,000 local government staff and volunteers have been involved in this election process. I would like to thank each one for their hard work and diligence in making sure the democratic process has been successfully carried out.”

The local authorities taking part in the Sussex Police Area election are: Adur & Worthing, Arun, Brighton & Hove, Chichester, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings, Horsham, Lewes, Rother, Mid Sussex and Wealden. 

Information about all the votes cast including local breakdown of results