West Norfolk’s Stephen Bett has won the race to become Norfolk’s first police and crime commissioner.
After trailing Conservative candidate Jamie Athill after the first round count, the independent candidate, who was formerly chairman of Norfolk Police Authority, came home strongly in the second round to pip him at the post.
Mr Bett, from Thornham, finished with a total of 39,988 votes, compared to 36,605 for Mr Athill, from Gateley, near Dereham.
Mr Bett got 12,146 votes, compared to 5,771 for Mr Athill, when the second preference votes from the three eliminated candidates ballot papers were counted.
In the first round of counting at St Andrew’s Hall in Norwich this (Friday) afternoon, Mr Athill came out on top with 30,834 votes (31.7 per cent) to Mr Bett’s 27,842 (28.6pc).
But as no candidate got more than 50 per cent of the total vote, the second round of counting came into play – and that saw Mr Bett emerge the winner.
In Lincolnshire, another independent candidate, Alan Hardwick, was chosen as the county’s first police and crime commissioner after winning the run-off with fellow independent, David Bowles.
Full report and more details in Tuesday’s Lynn News.
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