Scottish Parliamentary Elections called in Highland

Nominations forms are now available for those people seeking election to the Scottish Parliament. Prospective candidates have until 4 pm on Tuesday 29 March to return their forms.

The election, together with the national referendum on the voting system to be adopted by the UK Parliament, will take place on Thursday 5 May.

As well as returning a Member of the Scottish Parliament in three Highland constituencies, electors will be asked to complete a ballot paper to elect 7 Additional Members from the Highlands and Islands Regional List to the Scottish Parliament.

The boundaries of the three Highland constituencies have changed since the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary elections to achieve a closer parity of electors in each constituency. In Highland there are 177,614 electors in three parliamentary constituencies which are part of the Highlands and Islands Region. They are:-

Caithness, Sutherland and Ross – 56,274 electors
Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch – 58,048 electors
Inverness and Nairn   -  63,292 electors

On election day on Thursday 5 May, polling will take place between 7 am and 10 pm at 306 polling stations in the three Highland constituencies.

Ballot papers will be taken to the Highland Football Academy, Victoria Park, Dingwall, where the votes will be verified overnight.

On Friday 6 May, the counts for the three constituencies will commence at 9 am. This will be followed at lunch time by the count of the Regional List ballot papers and at 4 pm the referendum votes will be counted.

The homepage of http://www.www.highland.gov.uk/  has more information about the forthcoming election.