17 November 2012 Last updated at 06:40 ET

Sussex PCC election: Conservative Katy Bourne wins vote

BBC South East's political correspondent reports on the Sussex police and crime commissioner election

Conservative Katy Bourne has been elected as the first police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Sussex.

She beat her nearest rival, Labour's Godfrey Daniel, on second preference votes after neither candidate secured 50% of the vote.

The turnout, including people who spoilt their ballot papers, was 15.82%.

Ms Bourne will take over responsibility for overseeing Sussex Police, appointing and dismissing the chief constable and setting the budget.

Of the 195,218 people who voted in the Sussex election, 5,982 spoilt their ballot papers.

UKIP's Tony Armstrong, independent Ian Chisnall and David Rogers, of the Liberal Democrats, were eliminated in the first round.

'Crime fighting priorities'

Analysis Louise Stewart Political editor, South East

---

In Kent and Sussex, as elsewhere across the country, many people simply didn't bother to vote for the new role of police and crime commissioner, with only around one in six actually going to the polls.

In Sussex, the result followed party political lines. The Conservative candidate Katy Bourne comfortably beat Labour's Godfrey Daniel.

But Labour will take great heart from the fact they came first in the more urban areas Hastings, Crawley and Brighton and Hove.

It was a really bad day for the Liberal Democrats - they didn't put up a candidate in Kent and came last in Sussex - behind UKIP and the independent.

They clearly predicted a bad result as no Lib Dem even turned up for the count in Sussex. They have to hope these elections were an anomaly and not a reflection of how they would fare come the next General Election.

• Read more from Louise

In the first preference Ms Bourne polled 59,635, which was 31% of the vote, compared to Mr Daniel's 40,765 votes.

She was awarded 20,393 second preference votes compared to her rival's 14,837.

This gave her a total of 80,028 votes over Mr Daniel's 55,602.

Speaking after the result was declared, she said: "It's time to park the politics of the campaign.

"I'm looking forward to working with the chief constable and setting the crime fighting priorities that people in Sussex want."

Ms Bourne is a Mid Sussex district councillor, businesswoman and national chairwoman of the Conservative Women's Organisation.

Labour candidate Mr Daniel said the result was "credible".

"It showed that we're people to be reckoned with - people who are fighting against the cuts in policing," he said.

"I give Katy Bourne my congratulations and just hope policing doesn't suffer with cuts from her government."

SUSSEX: Katy Bourne (Conservative) elected
Turnout does not include spoilt ballots
Turnout: 189,236 (15.3%)
Second round
Candidate	Party	Final total	%	Status
Katy Bourne	Conservative	80,028	59%	Elected
Godfrey Daniel	Labour	55,602	41%
First round
Candidate	Party	1st pref	%	2nd pref
Katy Bourne	Conservative	59,635	32%	20,393
Godfrey Daniel	Labour	40,765	22%	14,837
Ian Chisnall	Independent	38,930	21%
Tony Armstrong	UKIP	29,327	15%
David Rogers	Liberal Democrat	20,579	11%