IT was a long night on Thursday, December 12, as the General Election counts for both Montgomeryshire and Brecon and Radnorshire constituencies were held at the Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells.

County Times reporters Anwen Parry and Josie LeVay were there to cover the events and chief photographer Phil Blagg took this spread of pictures as Powys awoke to find it had elected two new Conservative MPs – Fay Jones for Brecon and Radnorshire and Craig Williams in Montgomeryshire.

Fay and Craig emerged as the winners, but we feature here some of the many people who made sure democracy was the overall winner.