Manx Labour Party leader Joney Faragher topped the polls in Douglas East with 741 votes.

She said: ’I was hoping I would do well, but I didn’t really let myself think that I might get in to be honest.

’With seven candidates, and a traditionally low turnout, I wasn’t really letting myself think that this might happen. It’s such a cliche but I feel so honoured and privileged to have been elected and that people have put their faith in me.

’I declared quite early on this year and I started campaigning after the second lockdown was completed.

’Because I was working full-time as well I wasn’t campaigning as much as I wanted, so I knew I had to start early. But that meant when it came to this week, that the places that I had started with wouldn’t have seen me for months. I was concerned about that.

’I’m ever so grateful to people for turning up and putting that "X" in the box.’

Clare Barber finished second behind Ms Faragher in the standings with 692 to retain her seat in the constituency.

Reflecting on a tough campaign involving seven candidates, Mrs Barber said: ’Douglas East attracts a large number of candidates and I think that’s great as it hopefully means there is someone for everyone, although I remain concerned about the low turnout.

’When you’ve got seven candidates with quite diverse views, plus issues like a global pandemic and climate change, there is definitely a concern around disenfranchisement and disengagement with voters that we need to address more widely.

’For me electronic voting is absolutely something we should be looking at. We need to look at how we can really bring voting to people.

’Postal voting was a new thing for us this year, but that was certainly not without its challenges in terms of people having filled the papers in correctly or submitted them in the right way.

’We’re still quite a long way behind some other jurisdictions that are not that far away from us. For me I’d like to see a progressive review around electoral reform and I hope some of that will come out of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association mission.

As she begins her second term, Mrs Barber said she would be willing to take on a ministerial role, but only if she believed she could do the job well: ’I would never say "never" to anything, but I would want to make sure it was something I felt I could truly offer the right qualities to the job. I wouldn’t take a position ever just because. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. It’s not about kudos for me - I want to be able to deliver the best outcomes for the people of Douglas East and the people of our island. If that is in a ministerial role, great, but equally if it’s not then that would also suit me just fine.’

Mrs Barber also paid tribute to Chris Robertshaw who decided not to stand this year after 11 years representing Douglas East.

’I have loved working with Chris. We certainly have not seen eye-to-eye on everything and we’ve had really robust debates, while totally respecting each other’s opinions.

’We worked together really hard on certain issues such as the promenade and I hope that has been noticed.

’For my first five years, I couldn’t have hoped for a better person to have served with and I hope the relationship that I have with Joney is just as good as the one I had with Chris and I see no reason why it won’t be.

’We’ve started off on a great footing and had a lot of conversations during the campaign and I really hope that we’ll be a team that works well together.’