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Rotherham town centre Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Tomorrow will see the whole of the Rotherham metropolitan borough council re-elected after a turbulent few years for the town.

In response to a scathing report into the handling of the child sexual exploitation scandal, which declared the council “not fit for purpose”, power was taken away from the town’s elected officials and put in the hands of government commissioners. Although some powers will be handed back after this election, councillors will still only control around a third of the local authority’s budget.

Local elections in May 2014 saw Ukip become the official opposition to Labour on Rotherham’s council and Nigel Farage has predicted that his party could become the biggest party in the town. Ukip holds 12 of the council’s 63 seats, compared with Labour’s 43.

Local MP Sarah Champion says that public anger over the handling of the child sex abuse scandal has subsided somewhat, but admits that Ukip could still win about a third of council seats.

“I think they’ll do well because people have got three votes this time,” she says. “I think if there was only one vote, then people would vote for Labour, but as there are three I think a lot of people will probably [put two crosses] for Labour and one for another party. And the main ‘other’ is Ukip in our area.”

Sarah Champion MP at her constituency office in Rotherham. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

However, Ukip’s campaign has not been as strong as in previous years, Champion says. “From what I’ve seen there’s been hardly any [Ukip] literature in windows, people haven’t had stuff through their letter boxes. I’ve not seen any teams out. It feels more as though they’ve sort of moved on.”

The MP has spent the day going around polling stations and says that, despite the glorious sunshine, the initial signs are that turnout has been “ridiculously low”. At one of the polling stations she visited earlier today only 30 people had turned up to vote out of a possible 900.

“Some people will vote by post, but we know as of last week that the postal vote turnout was very low as well,” she says. “So I think it will be a very, very low turnout, unless something dramatic happens.”