Portsmouth's Donna Jones is elected as Hampshire police and crime commissioner

Votes have been counted up across the county today, after voters went to the polls on May 6.

Conservative candidate Donna Jones, formerly the leader of Portsmouth City Council, will now take on the mantle for the next four years.

The final declaration was made at Southampton Guildhall after counting began this morning.

Ms Jones said: ‘I’m really thrilled and delighted – I can’t wait to get stuck in to this really important role and make our streets safer.

‘On Thursday, May 13 I will take the oath of office in front of a magistrate and then having a briefing with the Chief Constable in the afternoon.

‘I’m going to do everything I can to make our community safer, especially across the city of Portsmouth.’

Voted for every four years, the police and crime commissioner elections are run using a supplementary vote (SV) system – which means there are two sets of votes.

People’s first choices are counted first and if no candidate has more than 50 per cent of the vote, voters’ second choices are taken into account.

After the first round of votes, Ms Jones had 262,667 votes.

In the end, it came down to a two-horse race between the former council leader and the Labour candidate, Tony Bunday, who had 101,832 votes after the first round.

The other candidates were Liberal Democrat Richard Murphy and Steve James-Bailey, a former police officer representing Hampshire Independents.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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