England and Wales were waiting Friday for 40 results from the first ever vote to elect police commissioners but the government was under fire after turnout was as low as 10 percent in some areas.
Charged with setting out a vision and budget for police forces across England and Wales and with the power to sack the most senior officers, Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the commissioners as the new public face of crime-fighting.
The message apparently failed to get through to voters in Thursday’s vote.
Turnout in Wiltshire in southwest England — where a magistrate, Angus Macpherson, became the first commissioner elected in the country — was slightly higher than the national picture although it still failed to reach 16 percent.
The presence of one of the few high-profile candidates, former deputy prime minister John Prescott, in the vote in Humberside in northeast England failed to raise the turnout beyond 20 percent.
Yvette Cooper, home affairs spokeswoman for the main opposition Labour party, said the elections had been a shambles and accused Home Secretary Theresa May of misusing public money that could have been used to create more rank-and-file police.
Cooper said: “We warned the government repeatedly that they had the wrong approach and that turnout would be low.
“Theresa May and David Cameron didn’t listen and it is shocking that they have spent £100 million (124.5 million euros, $158.5 million) on these elections rather than on 3,000 police constables instead.
“Time and again on the doorstep people told us either they didn’t have enough information, didn’t know the elections were happening, didn’t support them or didn’t want to go out in the dark to vote.”
May argues that the commissioners will become the “voice of the people” and will be “visible, accessible and accountable”.
Although the role of the commissioners is designed to ensure they will hold the police to account, opponents fear they will attempt to interfere with day-to-day operational policing.
Elsewhere, Labour held on to two safe seats in by-elections in Manchester in northwest England and the Welsh capital Cardiff.
The result in a closely-watched by-election in Corby in central England, where the Conservatives risk losing a seat to Labour after the incumbent Louise Mensch moved to New York with her family, was due later Friday.
Low turnout in 'shambolic' British police polls
