Tim Passmore, the Conservative candidate for the County post of Police & Crime Commissioner, beat Labour’s Jane Basham in an extremely close contest yesterday.
After second preference votes were counted, Tim polled 36,946 whilst Ms Basham had 35,005.
Mr Passmore said he was “pleased and honoured” to be elected as PCC on what was a “historic day” for Suffolk.
He said: “It was close. I know the turnout wasn’t particularly good – it was better here in Suffolk than in some areas but I have been critical of the Government all along in the way that the publicity was put out for raising the profile but the local media has done a fantastic job”.
 “The Government should have financed an election address to everybody, particularly when you have got a new election like this, a new concept – I don’t know what they thought they were up to.” He said it had not been possible to go out and speak to all voters individually but he and his team had “done their best”.
About the low turnout (16%) and questions about his mandate after losing the first choice vote by 162 votes, he said: “Everybody had the opportunity to vote, if they don’t use it then that’s up to them so I don’t really go much for the argument about mandates.”
Acknowledging that under a different system Ms Basham would have won, he said: “It was very close and I think the point about this system is it does give a broader appeal. We did win quite clearly – in each of the seven districts and borough across Suffolk we had a clear majority on the second preference votes, hence we ended up with a majority of just over 1,900 votes overall. Whichever electoral system you pick there are always criticisms of how you run it.”Comments taken from: http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/suffolk_tory_police_and_crime_commissioner_tim_passmore_criticises_government_over_ridiculous_handling_of_elections_1_1697036