Counting is under way at the Brighton Centre this afternoon for the Sussex police and crime commissioner (PCC) election and Brighton and Hove City Council by-elections.
After verification of votes this morning, turnout – the percentage of people who voted – has been announced.
The overall turnout for the Sussex PCC election was 24.49 per cent, with a total of 317,716 votes cast.
Brighton and Hove’s turnout to elect the new PCC was slightly less at 22.27 per cent but this represents the area with the biggest number of votes cast (45,106 votes).
The highest turnout areas in the election for Sussex PCC was Hastings (36.72 per cent) and Adur (34.92 per cent).
In the by-election for Queen’s Park ward, turnout was slightly higher than expected at 38.9 per cent.
In Kemptown, the turnout was 34.8 per cent.
Results for the Sussex PCC election and council by-elections are expected from around 3pm.
Double Labour win.
Double disappointment. Kemptown has yet another invisible councillor.
And why did it take three days to learn the results when many other councils announced their election results overnight?
Because the votes were counted as part of the much bigger P&CC election which needed to be coordinated across 13 councils – some of whom had full local council elections to be counted first.
It was also cheaper for B&HCC to count these two by-elections this way rather than conduct separate counts.
It made no difference as to when the winners took up office as the count took place within the statutory framework.