“I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.”

Newport councillor Kevin Whitehead, Independent member for the city’s Bettws ward, said it was “staggering” that a polling station had failed to register a single vote. “It’s just apathy. I think apathy rules when it comes to politics in general,” he said. “People are more concerned with the bigger picture like the recession.”

Conservative councillor Matthew Evans, who is the leader of the opposition on Newport council, said the fact nobody had voted at a polling station “doesn’t show anybody in a particularly good light”. However, he said he was not surprised there was a low turnout generally in the elections. “Clearly, if you’ve got a polling station where nobody turns up, it’s extremely disappointing,” he said. “It’s quite frankly a daft time of the year to have an election – it’s cold and miserable.” “It wasn’t a topic that people felt passionately about.”

Labour’s Newport West MP Paul Flynn, whose constituency includes Bettws, said he believed a lack of enthusiasm for the elections from the Conservative Party which introduced the policy had contributed to the low turnout. But he admitted another factor was the lack of trust in politics and lack of confidence in politicians generally. The total turnout for Wales was 14.9%.

BBC News Website, November 16, 2012, “Zero turnout at Newport polling station in PCC election.”