Turnout as low as 11.5% for police commissioner vote (From Daily Echo)

Turnout as low as 11.5% for Hampshire police commissioner vote

12:44pm Friday 16th November 2012 in Crime By Patrick Knox, Senior Reporter

Voter turnout was as low as 11.5 per cent in certain parts of Hampshire in the first ever Police and Crime Commissioner election.

It meant the turnout was even worse than the pessimistic predictions on the eve of the election, which forecast that fewer than one in five people would cast their vote. Areas such as Gosport saw as few as one in ten people turning out.

And only 13 per cent of people in Southampton took part in the ballot, with only three other local authorities across the county seeing worse turnouts.

They were Gosport, which had the lowest turnout of all with 11.5 per cent, Portsmouth with 11.6 per cent and Rushmoor, where 12.3 per cent of residents voted.

The highest turnout in Hampshire came in Winchester, where 20.2 per cent of the electorate filled in their ballot papers.

Elsewhere, Test Valley clocked up a 17.9 per cent turnout and the New Forest managed 16.3 per cent.

Just 16.2 per cent of Eastleigh residents cast their vote, while Fareham saw a turnout of 14.7 per cent.

The figures come in well below the national average turnout, which latest figures reveal to be around 18.5 per cent.

The winner of the Hampshire vote is expected to be announced in Southampton Guildhall this afternoon.