Delay In Election Count

Residents are still waiting to find out who their councillors are after a delay in the AV referendum count in East Lindsey.

Nigel Howells, the returning officer for East Lindsey, announced at 4am this morning that there had been a delay in thousands of AV votes and that the council counts had not yet begun.

Mr Howells said: “The verification office in Kettering, which signs the declaration for the referendum, has shut and so I won’t be able to announce any results publicly until 9am.

“The problems are with the referendum verification which has taken a lot longer than we thought.”

Mr Howells told candidates: “We will continue to count through the morning and can inform you and your agents of the result, but I can’t publicly announce the district results until Friday.”

Councillors and prospective councillors were set to reconvene at the leisure centre from 11am, with a view to the first wards being declared in the early afternoon.  It is likely that the full, district wide picture will not be known until the early evening, and the town council’s some time after that.

A number of councillors already know their seat on the council is safe after they were uncontested in their ward.  This included Leader of East Lindsey District Council, Doreen Stephenson.  It seems likely that, barring any major swing in power away from the Conservatives, Councillor Stephenson will continue to lead the council.  However, this will be confirmed at the Annual General Meeting due to be held on the 18 May.

There are no uncontested wards within the Spilsby area so we still await the results.  We will post them as we are made aware of the results.