It has been revealed that a polling day gaffe led to a candidate being elected despite coming last with just 6% of the vote.

Kaz Macklin has taken up a position on Boxley Parish Council after her name was read out in error.

It is understood the 66-year-old intends to serve her term and the only way to remove her would require a drawn-out High Court challenge.

The misunderstanding arose on May 2 when counting for the local elections took place at Detling’s Kent County Showground.

Maidstone Borough Council’s returning officer, Angela Woodhouse, correctly declared the number of votes for the eight candidates in Boxley North ward, of which the top six should have been elected.

However, when reading out their names, she mistakenly announced Mrs Macklin, 66, who’d come bottom of the poll with 152 votes.

Fellow candidates Nazanin Zand (153) and Stephen Mayes (184) had more - meaning the latter should have taken a place on the non-political council.

Realising a mistake had been made, the result was immediately challenged by newly elected Bob Hinder and two of the other candidates.

After checking with Maidstone council’s chief executive, Alison Broom, Ms Woodhouse admitted she had made an error but unfortunately nothing could be done.

This is because once a returning officer declares, that result stands unless it is changed by order of the High Court.

Speaking to KentOnline this week, Mr Mayes revealed he didn’t become aware of the results - or the error - until two days later.

He said: “I wasn’t at the count because my father died the day before and I had a lot to do - the election was the last thing on my mind at that point.”

Ironically, his dad Eric had been a former Boxley parish councillor and was even its chairman at one time.

The 64-year-old, of Boxley Road, Walderslade, added: “My father did a lot for the village, establishing Beechen Hall among other things.

“I’ve lived in the village since 1964 and I’m very passionate about the area. I actually joined the parish council for the last eight months of the last term.

“Obviously, I was keen to get re-elected and I put out 800 leaflets at my own expense. But this error by the returning officer has really spoilt things for me.

“The worst thing is that I haven’t received any kind of apology or even notification from the borough council.

“I don’t blame Kaz Macklin. Obviously, it wasn’t her fault. I don’t have any sour grapes towards her. She is a fantastic person and will do a great job.”

But Mr Mayes he is now disillusioned with the whole business and says he won’t be standing again.

“This wasn’t the only thing that happened. The whole election process left a very bad taste. There were some questionable procedures,” he said.

“I called the borough council’s monitoring officer several times to complain, but nothing was done.”

Meanwhile, Ms Macklin duly took her seat on the parish council at its first meeting on Wednesday of last week, at which Cllr Hinder was elected chairman.

A veteran of the local political scene, he said: “The error by the returning officer rather shook me. I’ve never come across this before.

“I’ve since held discussions with the borough council, but it seems nothing can be done unless Mr Mayes chooses to challenge the result in the courts.”

However, Mr Mayes added: “Perhaps if it didn’t come at the time of my father dying, I might have done, but not now.

“It’s all been rather embarrassing. People have been coming up to me and asking: how did you do in the election?

“When I say, well I should have been elected, but the returning officer declared someone else, they look at me as if they don’t believe me.

“I feel the borough council should have made some official announcement so everyone knows what happened.”

Although rare, this is not the first time a returning officer has got it wrong.

The same thing happened at Nelson, Lancashire, last May, when Tory Julie Green won a town council seat with 242 votes, while Labour’s Patricia Hannah-Wood received 177.

But the returning officer incorrectly declared Ms Hannah-Wood had been elected.

In that case, a petition was lodged at the High Court which found the election had not been properly conducted.

The decision would have been reversed, but Ms Hannah-Wood had already resigned.

The law states that a person declared elected can act as a councillor until it is determined they have not been duly elected, which can only happen once the High Court rules a mistake was made.

A similar - though perhaps slightly more understandable - error occurred in the parish council elections at Silloth-on-Solway, Cumbria, in May 2019.

A husband and wife were standing for election. Peter Groucott was elected although he only polled 189 votes and his wife, Karen Groucott, had received 320.

In that case, he also resigned, making way for his spouse to be elected in a by-election.

In Boxley, Mr Mayes said: “I don’t want to ask Kaz to do that. It’s all too much fuss and I don’t think voters would understand. We’ll just let things stand.”

“It’s all been rather embarrassing. People have been coming up and asking: how did you do?”

A Maidstone council spokesman said: “We can confirm there was an administrative error at the count, and as a result the returning officer mistakenly declared the incorrect candidate as being elected.

“Legally, once the declaration has been made, the result can only be overturned by an election petition.

“The returning officer apologises for the error.

“Elections are a long and complex process and MBC has now put additional controls and checks in place to make sure this error is not repeated.”

Mrs Macklin, of Sylvan Glade, Walderslade, declined to comment when we called at her home.