Katy Bourne has been re-elected as Sussex police and crime commissioner (PCC) with a total of 139,335 votes.
The Conservative incumbent beat Labour candidate Michael Jones in a run-off after no candidate secured 50 per cent of the first 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 first. Any candidate with more than 50 per cent of the first preference votes is elected.
The first-choice results were
- Katy Bourne (Conservative) 114,570 (41.78 per cent)
- Michael Jones (Labour) 61,017 (22.25 per cent)
- Patrick Lowe (UKIP) 43,075 (15.71 per cent)
- James Walsh (Liberal Democrats) 29,550 (10.77 per cent)
- James Doyle (Green) 26,038 (9.49 per cent)
Michael Jones picked up the most first preference votes in Brighton and Hove. He secured 14,786 compared with 11,379 for Katy Bourne. The only other district where he had more first preference votes was Hastings. Voting took place in 13 Sussex districts in all.
After second preferences were counted Michael Jones had 86,392 votes – more than 50,000 short of first place.
He took comfort from having 24,765 second preferences, almost as many as the 25,375 for Katy Bourne.
The turnout was 23.14 per cent with a total of 281,538 votes cast across Sussex. A total of 7,288 ballot papers were rejected. The turnout in 2012 was less than 15.82 per cent.
