British voters headed to the polls Thursday to vote for the country's first elected police and crime commissioners, who will set budgets and priorities and have the power to sack their chief constables. The changes represent the biggest shake-up in British policing for 50 years, but turnout is set to be poor. The Electoral Reform Society predicting just 18.5 percent of voters will cast their ballots, the lowest level in British history.

Polls are taking place to elect commissioners for all 41 police forces across England and Wales except in London. The commissioners, who will be elected for four years, will be expected to hold the force to account and act as a public face for crime-fighting in each area.

Critics have accused the government of failing to publicise the vote, a key manifesto promise of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party before it came to power in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010. The lack of public enthusiasm has also been blamed on everything from the dreary November chill to the dearth of big names running for office, with the exception of the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

Turnout in British elections has fallen dramatically in recent decades - and in a further sign of apathy, voters in nine cities in May rejected the introduction of elected mayors. Votes will be counted in all but one areas on Friday, with the winning candidates assuming office on November 22.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012