Ousted detective 'Robocop' set to become mayor

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Voters want to talk about crime, not the health service

Tomorrow's poll results provide rich pickings for politicians and pundits

Ray Mallon, the former detective known as Robocop who left the Cleveland force after admitting to disciplinary offences, could become the country's second elected independent mayor tomorrow in the first batch of mayoral elections outside London.

Mr Mallon is expected to overcome the party system and win the race to become Mayor of Middlesbrough.

Privately, ministers have already conceded defeat. Mr Mallon's campaign has ignited national interest in the American-style mayoral system being introduced for the first time in seven authorities across Britain.

The mayors have been created by Labour in an attempt to reinvigorate local politics. Candidates in most areas will be chosen by a single transferable vote, a form of proportional representation.

Labour is likely to win the elections in Doncaster, Lewisham, Newham, North Tyneside and, probably, Hartlepool. But it faces a tough challenge in Watford, where the race could go to a second round.

Labour's campaign suffered an upset when the party was forced to re-run its ballot to choose a candidate for Lewisham after the rejection of the council leader and Labour moderniser Dave Sullivan.

In Lewisham, Derek Stone, the Tory candidate for mayor, was criticised for a poster that described him as "one of your own" and depicted a Union flag. Mr Stone was the man who advised the former prime minister John Major to use a soapbox to address voters during Mr Major's days as a councillor in Lambeth in the 1960s.

Twenty-three referendums on creating a mayoralty have been held in the past year, but only eight authorities voted "yes". Speculation that big cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool would be the first to opt for mayors was dashed, leaving smaller councils to pioneer the system.