THE SYSTEM to elect Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) needs to be overhauled following ‘confusion’ among voters, says an MP.

David Davies says he has received complaints from across his Monmouth constituency from people who found the voting slip misleading.

Under the supplementary voting system voters had to register their first and second choices on the same slip.

If no candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote, all but the two leading candidates are eliminated.

The second choices on the votes for the eliminated candidates are then counted and any in favour of the two remaining candidates are added to their totals.

A “general misunderstanding” about the use of the second preference vote led to “widespread confusion” with many people wrongly assuming it was mandatory, said the Tory MP.

He said: “The information on this was woefully unclear.

“I have had a number of complaints and I wasn’t even sure myself.

“Many people thought that not using their second choice would invalidate the ballot paper, while others were asking if they could vote twice for the same candidate.

“There needs to be proper guidance issued next time and I will be writing to the Electoral Commission to make these concerns known.”

In all three local force areas, Gloucestershire, Gwent and West Mercia, the elections were decided on second preference votes.

In the vote for the Gwent PCC, which covers the Monmouth constituency, there were 20,812 spoilt ballots.

Turnout was 39 per cent – which was up 25 per cent on the last PCC election in 2012 – although that might have been helped by the fact that the vote for the Welsh Assembly was taking place on the same day.

The new PCC is former Labour Assembly member Jeff Cuthbert who polled 96,030 votes, nearly 26,000 more than Louise Brown for the Conservatives.

Turn-out in Gloucestershire was 29.4 per cent which was up 13.4 per cent.

Independent Martin Surl retained the office ahead of Will Windsor-Clive for the Conservatives.

Mr Surl received a total of 78,592 votes compared with 51,567 for the Conservative challenger.

The Conservatives won in the West Mercia force area, which includes Ross-on-Wye.

John-Paul Campion is the new PCC after beating Labour’s Daniel Walton.

Mr Campion polled 83,619 compared to 55,162 for Mr Walton.