Election Office
Local Government Elections - 3 May 2012
The next Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Election will be held on Thursday 3 May 2012 to elect the 31 councillors who will serve on the Council's 9 multi-member wards. There are 4 four-member and 5 three-member wards. The current arrangements, including maps showing the current Polling District boundaries are available to view at the links provided below:-
Current Polling Districts / Places (PDF, 60K)
Polling District Map (PDF, 2.4M)
The election will be conducted under the voting system called the `Single Transferable Vote' (STV). Electors will rank the candidates on the ballot paper in order of preference – by putting a “1” in the voting box next to their first choice, “2” in the voting box next to their second choice, “3” in the voting box next to their third choice and so on. Electors can vote for as many or as few candidates as they wish.
To be elected a candidate must reach a set amount of votes known as the “quota”. The votes are counted in stages. In the first stage only first preferences are counted. Anyone who reaches the quota is elected. Any votes received over the quota are not needed by the elected candidate and so are transferred to the second preference. If not enough candidates have then reached the quota, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and all of their votes are passed to the next preference on the ballot papers. This process is repeated until three or four candidates have been elected.
At this year’s local council elections votes will be counted using an electronic counting system which will speed up the count process and ensure complete accuracy in the calculation of the results.
The Electoral Commission has published the timetable for the Local Government Elections on 3 May 2012:
Timetable for the Local Government Elections (PDF, 35K)
Further guidance and resources are available from the Electoral Commission Website
Contact Details
Election Office
Council Offices
Sandwick Road
Stornoway
Isle of Lewis
HS1 2BW
Tel: 01851 822613
Fax: 01851 705349
E-mail: elections@cne-siar.gov.uk
