Electoral registration reminder

SHETLAND folk are being reminded to ensure their electoral registration details are up to date and correct.

Islanders should have now received their annual electoral registration household enquiry form through the post.

The local registration office is reminding people that the voting age for the Scottish Parliament and council elections has been reduced to 16.

This means that the details of 14 and 15-year-olds who are living in Shetland must be included on the household form.

Shetland’s depute electoral registration officer Ian Leslie said peopled needed to be aware of these important changes.

He added: “The forms we have issued are different to those of previous years, and householders can now also respond either online, by text, or by phone as alternatives to returning the form by post.

“We trialled this back in 2013 and found this to be much more convenient for electors – and efficient for us – than returning the paper form in the post.

“Electoral registration is now a two stage process and follows on from the correspondence that we issued to electors in 2014.

“The householder is now required to give details of all the residents in the property, but any new electors in a property must also register individually to give the additional details that the process now requires.

“Again, this can now be done online and we would strongly urge electors to use this method rather than the completion of a paper form issued by this office.”