Kent PCC election: Conservative Matthew Scott wins
- Published
Conservative Matthew Scott has become police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Kent.
He was declared the winner after the poll went into a second count with Mr Scott and UKIP candidate Henry Bolton still left in the race.
Overall, Mr Scott had a total of 104,558 votes from both counts and Mr Bolton had 87,978.
Earlier, four other candidates were eliminated in the poll to select Kent's next PCC.
Mr Scott said: "Coming from a policing family I do have an understanding of the issues that police officers face on a day-to-day basis and what resources they need to get the job done."
He said that although the Chief Constable retains operational control of the police at all times, he would be there to hold him to account for the decisions he makes.
He added: "I will be going out there and promoting what those roles and responsibilities are which includes oversight of the budget, the setting of the council tax, commissioning certain services and working with other organisations to help to cut crime."
He will replace controversial commissioner Ann Barnes.
What does a PCC do?
- They set out policing priorities
- They have the power to appoint and fire the chief constable
- They hold forces to account but crucially don't run them
Voter turnout was 266,806 (20.98%) compared with 204,917 (15.99%) in 2012.
The four eliminated in the first count were Liberal Democrat candidate David Naghi, Labour's Tristan Osborne, Independent Gurvinder Sandher and Steve Uncles from the English Democrats.
Results listed alphabetically by surname are as follows. BBC News App users: tap here to see the results.