Voters will go to the polls in elections for Police and Crime Commissioners across the country on May 7 – but will have several days’ wait before finding out who has won.

The elections take place, as is traditional, on a Thursday. In previous years the votes have been counted on the following day to avoid counters having to work through the night - but this year the early May bank holiday has been moved from Monday 4 to Friday 8 so the country can celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day with a long weekend.

That means that the votes in Suffolk and many other parts of the country will be locked away until Monday, May 11, when they will be counted and the winner announced.

The election is due to go ahead at the beginning of May - although there could be changes to the timetable if the coronavirus outbreak has forced the country to effectively lock itself down.

In 2001 the local elections were postponed a month because of the foot and mouth disease outbreak - and when we did go to vote it was in a General Election at the start of June.

The postponement announcement came at the start of April in 2001 - the government is unlikely to make any announcement about this year's elections before then unless a major public health crisis blows up over the next week.

The notice of election is due to be published on Friday March 27 with the closing date for nominations on Wednesday, April 8. So far in Suffolk the only known candidate is current PCC Tim Passmore who will be standing again for the Conservatives.

Roger Hirst is seeking re-election as Essex Police and Fire Commissioner. The election takes place at the same time - but the count is due to take part on Sunday, May 10.

There are only two councils in the area which have elections this year - Ipswich and Colchester are both electing a third of their councils and will be counting those votes on the Thursday evening into the early hours of Bank Holiday Friday.

In Ipswich the current make-up of the council makes it impossible for Labour to lose control - but in Colchester the authority is much more finely-balanced. At present the council is run by a coalition of Liberal Democrat, Labour and independent councillors.