One in four registered to vote through the post

AROUND one quarter of people eligible to vote in May’s council election are registered to do so through the post.

The deadline for postal vote registrations closed earlier this week, and Shetland Islands Council confirmed today (Thursday) that there are 3,327 postal registrations on the books.

This figure does not include the North Isles and Shetland North wards because they are uncontested.

Across the five wards that will be contested, there are 13,325 people registered to vote in total.

It is difficult to compare to previous years due to the uncontested wards. In the last council election in 2017 there was no vote in Shetland South.

Meanwhile last year, when there was a Scottish Parliament election, there was a large increase in postal voters due to the Covid pandemic.

A spokesperson for Shetland Islands Council said: “The majority of electors who first set up a postal vote in 2021 chose to make that a permanent arrangement, and these are now in place for these elections.”

As of 20 April, the breakdown per election ward – with the number of postal voters in brackets – is as follows:

• Shetland West – 1,364 (367)
• Shetland Central – 3,170 (706)
• Lerwick North and Bressay – 2,409 (565)
• Lerwick South – 3,034 (802)
• Shetland South – 3,348 (887)

The council elections will take place on 5 May. A full list of candidates can be found here.