COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Voting in the by-election for the West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) has begun, to appoint a successor to Bob Jones, who died in July.



The candidates are David Jamieson (Labour); Les Jones (Conservative); Keith Rowe (Ukip); and Ayoub Khan (Liberal Democrat).

Voting began at 07:00 BST and polling stations will remain open until 22:00 BST.

The result is expected at about 16:30 BST on Friday.

West Midlands PCC election won by David Jamieson amid 10.4% turnout



Labour's David Jamieson has been elected as the new West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC), as it emerged the turnout was just 10.4%.

He was declared the winner on first preference votes with 50.83%.

The turnout was lower than the 12% in the area in the original PCC contest in 2012, won by Bob Jones, who died in July.

The cost to the taxpayer of staging the new poll was estimated as at least £3.7m - nearly £20 for every vote cast.

The poor turnout sparked calls for the process to be reformed, with Labour calling the by-election "a shambles".

Jack Dromey, shadow minister for police, said it had been a by-election "characterised by costly chaos and a record low turnout".

The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) said the law needed looking at, calling it "a very depressing turnout".