Candidates await crime commissioner result
Votes will be counted in the by-election for the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner today.
There are concerns the turnout could have been even lower than the 12 per cent who voted when the position was created in 2012.
The by-election was called following the death of Labour commissioner Bob Jones in July.
But there has been heavy criticism of the legislation that created the position which required the election to be called within 35 working days of a returning officer being informed of the vacancy.
Follow live updates from the count here.
It meant the election took place when many voters would have been on holiday.
The count was due to begin at around 9.30am but results were not likely to be confirmed until late afternoon.
This is because the PCC election uses the supplementary vote system.
Voters were asked to give a second preference.
They had a choice of Labour's David Jamieson, Conservative Les Jones, Liberal Democrat Ayoub Khan and UKIP's Keith Rowe.
If a candidate receives more than half of all the first choice votes, they are elected immediately.
But if this does not happen, the two candidates with the most first choice votes go through to a second round.
All other candidates are eliminated, but their second choice votes for either of the top two candidates are added to the totals for those two candidates from the first round.
The candidate with the highest combined total of first and second choice votes will be elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands.
Mr Jones was 59 when he passed away in his sleep.
He had been an experienced former police authority board member before being elected as the West Midlands commissioner in November 2012 after receiving 117,415 votes, more than double the number cast for the second-placed Conservative candidate.
The job comes with a £100,000 a year salary set by the Home Secretary.
It will give the winner responsibility setting a force budget and holding the chief constable to account.
The winner will have to cope with £126 million of cuts since 2010, with £23m coming over the course of this year.
