Low turnout for mayor vote

Low turnout in mayor vote

Just a quarter of voters turned out in Rochdale for the first ever Mayor of Greater Manchester poll.

Election boxes arrived last night for verification with 40,281 voting out of an electorate of 159,607 ­ a turnout of 25.24%, the second lowest of the ten Greater Manchester boroughs.

From an overall electorate of two million people there were 573,543 votes cast, a turnout of 29.93%. Salford had the lowest turnout at 25.11% with Trafford the highest at 38.35%.

The voting slips have been taken to Manchester Central (formerly the GMex) where the count for each of the 10 districts will be carried out.

Eight candidates will be anxiously awaiting the result, which is due to be announced at the centre on Friday afternoon.

This election uses the Supplementary Voting System, which gives electors the opportunity to cast their vote for their first and second choice candidates, with more than 50% of the vote needed to win before second choices are taken into account.