THURROCK Council has explained why over 200 votes were rejected at last night’s local election.

There was a number of eyebrows raised when the return officer, Lyn Carpenter read out the result of the Chadwell St Mary election.

Two Labour candidates won.

At the end, Ms Carpenter detailed the number of ballot papers that were rejected and why.

Afterwards, we asked Thurrock Council, why the number of rejected papers was so large?

A spokesperson said: “Electors in Chadwell St Mary were voting for two seats on one ballot paper.

“268 votes were rejected, not ballot papers.

“20 ballot papers were rejected as they were wholly unmarked or void and this was equal to 40 uncast votes as there are two on each paper.

“228 votes were marked as rejected because the elector had only voted once on the ballot paper. The first vote on the ballot paper was counted, the uncast second vote was ‘rejected in part’ as it was unmarked”.