Election process gets underway on 13 March

The starting pistol for this year’s local council elections will be fired on Monday 13 March when the Notice of Election is published.

Prospective candidates then have just over two weeks to submit nomination packs to the council's elections team.

Nominations close at 16:00 on Wednesday 29 March with the list of candidates published shortly after on the council's website.

Karen Greaves is a Deputy Returning Officer for Orkney. She said: "We've had a number of requests for information from prospective candidates and our 'So You Want to be a Councillor' sessions were well attended. If you're considering standing for election as a local councillor and have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the team in the Elections Office who'll be happy to help."

Voters will go to the polls on 4 May to select Orkney's next 21 Councillors, with voting taking place between 07:00 and 22:00. Voting will be done through the Single Transferrable Vote system, where voters rank the candidates in order of preference.

The count takes place on the morning of Friday 5 May in the Kirkwall Town Hall and Community Centre with an announcement expected before lunchtime.

For the first time 16 and 17 year olds will be eligible to vote in the local council election.

Polling cards should arrive through letterboxes on 14/15 March. Your polling card will detail the location of your polling station. You don't need your polling card to vote, but it does speed up the process on the day.

If you don't receive your polling card you should contact the Election Office on 01856886350.

If you think you might not be registered to vote or have changed address recently, please contact the local electoral registration office on 01856876222 or email ero@orkney.gov.uk. The deadline date for registering to vote is Monday 17 April - however this is a public holiday, so it would be best to do this by Friday 14 April.

Your polling card details deadline dates for registering for a postal vote (17:00 on Tuesday 18 April) or a proxy vote - to allow someone voting on your behalf - (17:00 on 25 April).

Postal vote packs will be sent out on 13/14 April, with a further dispatch done on 25 April for any postal vote applications received after 29 March.

Link to the Scottish Local Government Elections - 4 May 2017 pages.