Still time to cast your vote

VOTER turnout for today’s council elections appears to be slow with just 14 per cent of voters in the five contested ward areas having cast their vote by 5pm.

A further 18 per cent of the electorate have opted to cast their vote by post, meaning the overall 5pm turnout is 32 per cent.

A total of 13,326 people are eligible to cast their vote in today’s council election. Polling stations remain open until 10pm.

Councillors are again being elected by using the single transferable vote (STV) system which requires voters to rank the candidates in order of preference.

This system, in operation in Scottish local government elections since 2007, is designed to return a more accurate representation of the diversity of every ward.

The STV system is explained in the short video below.

Of the seven wards in Shetland five are contested in this election, each returning between two and four councillors to sit on Shetland Islands Council for the next five years.

Shetland News will provide live, rolling coverage from the count tomorrow morning.

The new councillors for the North Isles and Shetland North have already been confirmed as these wards were uncontested.

They are Ryan Thomson and Duncan Anderson for the North Isles, and Emma Macdonald, Andrea Manson and Tom Morton (Labour) for Shetland North. A by-election for vacant third North Isles seat will be held during the summer.