LABOUR'S Mark Burns-Williamson is the new Police and Crime Commissioner for West Yorkshire.
The former West Yorkshire Police Authority chairman had to rely on second preference votes to nudge him over the winning line after polling 48% first choice votes.
The election count, which took place at Cathedral House on St Thomas' Road in Huddersfield, saw Mr Burns-Williamson fall just short on initial votes.
The poll was taking place under the Alternative Vote method which meant if a candidate failed to score more than half of first choice votes then second preference votes were counted.
A total of 221,257 verified votes were cast in West Yorkshire out of an electorate of 1,609,615.
There were more than 8,000 spoiled papers.
The figures mean that just 13.76% of eligible voters turned out to vote.
In Kirklees just 42,378 people cast their vote from an electorate of almost 310,000 giving a turnout of 13.69%.
Labour candidate and former West Yorkshire Police Authority chairman Mark Burns-Williamson secured almost 48% of the vote with 102,817 first choice votes.
Independent Cedric Christie accrued 49,299 first choice votes while Conservative candidate Geraldine Carter polled 45,365.
Lib-Dem Andrew Marchington was in fourth with just 17,247.
The Conservative and Lib-Dem candidates dropped out of the race with counters checking second preference votes for the Labour and Independent candidates.
In the end Mr Burns-Williamson's tally of 114,736 to Mr Christie's 71,876 was enough to secure victory to the £100k a year post.
Full report and reaction in tomorrow's Examiner.
