It’s just been declared that after the counting of the first preference votes, there is no winner as yet, leading to the second preference votes needing to be counted.
Michael Mates (Con) has ~52k votes, and Simon Hayes (Indi) has ~47k, giving only around 5,000 votes between them Steve Slominski from Eastleigh News, who is at the count, tells On The Wight.
The second preference votes cast will now be counted.
Update 14:40
Hampshire & IW first preference count
Vote numbers are –
27,197 – David Goodall, Lib Dem
47,638 – Simon Hayes, Independent
24,443 – Don Jerrard, JAC Party
52,616 – Michael Mates, Conservative
38,813 – Jacqui Rayment, Labour
21,183 – Stephen West, UKIP
5,595 papers rejected
Updated 14:56
Island specific votes
2,000 – David Goodall, Lib Dem
3,247 – Simon Hayes, Independent
1,703 – Don Jerrard, JAC Party
3,593 – Michael Mates, Conservative
2,745 – Jacqui Rayment, Labour
2,098 – Stephen West, UKIP
472 papers rejected
Counting for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight role were collated at Southampton City Council today.
A press announcement was originally planned to be made at 1:45 this afternoon, which was thought to be about a count of the second preference votes. This was dealyed and the candidates and the returning officer were taken to a room for private discussions.
Many thanks to Steve Slominski from Eastleigh News for providing the up to the minute updates.
