Just in case you’d forgotten, there will be a City of Edinburgh Council by-election tomorrow to elect two councillors for Ward 12 (Leith Walk).
Ten candidates are standing, of whom eight appeared at our hustings last month.
Some 25,526 eligible voters can rank as many or as few of these candidates as they wish.
They can rank them from 1 (favourite) downwards. This is called the Single Transferable Vote system.
There will be 11 polling places, open from 7am–10pm (see map below)
The Leith Walk ward comprises roughly 7 per cent of Edinburgh’s entire electorate.
Next spring we get to do it all over again for the Scottish Parliamentary Election, and in 2017 we can vote to fill yet more local-authority vacancies. Before then, we are promised a referendum on membership of the European Union. Depending on that result, presumably, a European Parliamentary election follows in 2019. The (Westminster) General Election is on 7 May 2020.
Will this democratic joy never end?
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