PCC elections take place at Warwick

**A handful of Warwick students were amongst the minority who voted in Thursday’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections, which saw a record low nationwide turnout of less than 15 percent.**

Warwick campus is split between two electoral constituencies. Eligible students living in Cryfield, Lakeside, Heronbank, Hurst, Redfern and Sherbourne could vote in the Warwickshire election, while the rest of campus accommodation is classed as being in the West Midlands constituency.

Consequently there were two polling stations on campus. The one for the West Midlands election was situated in the Arts Centre and the one for Warwickshire was in the Cryfield Pavilion.

Labour-backed candidate Bob Jones won the West Midlands election, which was contested by six candidates. Ron Ball, who ran as an Independent, beat the Labour and Conservative PCC candidates in Warwickshire.

The turnout in the West Midlands was the second lowest in the UK at 12 percent. The Warwickshire election had an overall turnout of 15.65 percent.

First-year physics student Will Jackson, who voted at the Arts Centre polling station, commented that, although he is against the idea of electing PCCs, he believed it was important for people to use their democratic right to vote.

In contrast, second-year English student Phoebe Demeger argued that the lack of information about the elections made it hard to know who to vote for. “There needs to be more publicity about the election and the candidates, especially for students living in the district,” she said.

When asked how they knew about the elections and how they decided who to vote for, some students answered that they had known because of a keen interest in politics, while a few admitted that they only knew about the elections because of posts on Facebook.

The role of PCCs is to ensure that police forces are accountable to their local communities and that forces deliver an efficient and effective police service. PCCs are required to swear an oath of impartiality when they are elected to office.

Commenting after the elections, second-year Maths student and vice president of the Warwick Liberal Democrats Duncan Mitchell said that the elections didn’t “grant any police commissioner the mandate to do what they want to do”.

He added that candidates who had pledged to fight against police budget cuts could not do so anyway, since the government has mandated front line cuts.