Cornwall Council has said that the delays in counting which led to the result of the Police and Crime Commissioner election not being announced until late last night was due to the need to be accurate.

Counting of votes in the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections  started at 9.30am yesterday (Monday) at the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge.

But eight hours later candidates and officials at the Exeter count centre – where the Devon and Cornwall results were to be compiled and announced – were left waiting for the outcome from Cornwall.

At the other 11 counts being held across Devon the results from the first round had been known by 12.30pm but the whole process came to a stop as the results from Cornwall had to be known before they could decide whether a second round of counting was required.

Officials told those waiting in Exeter at 5.30pm that there had been a “discrepancy” at the Cornwall count which had led to the delay.

The final result of the vote was not announced until around 10.45pm as a result of the delay in Cornwall.

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However when the Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Cornwall Council, which was in charge of the count, about the delay and whether it was due to votes being lost the council did not comment.

There had been a suggestion amongst those gathered at the Exeter centre that a significant number of ballots had gone “missing” which had caused the delay.

In a statement Cornwall Council said: “The priority for Cornwall was to deliver a safe and secure election.

“It is imperative that the numbers provided to the Police Area Returning Officer were accurate and, therefore, it was necessary to take the time needed to ensure the figures were correct.

“Cornwall is confident in the accuracy of the count confirmed to the Police Area Returning Officer.”

The council explained that PCC elections are funded by central government so there would be no extra cost incurred on the local authorities involved in the count as a result of the delays.

Alison Hernandez, Conservative candidate for the PCC, was re-elected after the second round of votes was required.

That second round gave her 65.2% of the vote with Gareth Derrick (Labour) taking 34.8%.

Ms Hernandez will serve her second term for three years after the election for PCC was delayed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.