Election Day 3 May 2007
View the Election 2007 results
On Thursday 3 May the elections for Angus Council and the Scottish Parliament take place.
The following pages give you some information about these elections and most importantly the changes in the voting system for your local councillors and the new multi-member wards.
You can also find out about postal and proxy voting, how to make sure you are registered to vote and which polling station you should go to.
We will also bring you news on which candidates are standing in both the local council and the Scottish parliamentary elections.
Local council election
Angus Council currently has 29 wards, with a single councillor representing each ward. Councillors have until now been elected using the first past the post voting system - in other words the candidate with the highest number of votes in each ward was elected.
All of that is changing on 3 May 2007.
From 3 May, the total number of councillors stays the same but Angus will have just eight wards, with each of these new wards having three or four councillors.
Councillors will be elected using a new voting system - the Single Transferable Vote (STV).
Instead of selecting just one candidate by putting a cross next to their name, you will be able to rank all of the candidates in your order of preference - by putting 1 by your first choice, 2 by your second choice, 3 by your third choice and so on. You may vote for as many or as few of the listed candidates as you wish. The candidates you vote for may be from the same party, from several different parties or be independents.
More information about this new voting system can be found at the Vote Scotland website www.votescotland.com.
Scottish Parliament election
In Scotland, 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs will be elected. The Angus constituency will return one MSP and as part of the North East Scotland Region Angus will contribute to the election of seven regional MSPs. Constituency MSPs are elected using the traditional first past the post system whereas regional MSPs are elected using the Additional Member System.
More information about the election of MSPs can be found at the Vote Scotland website www.votescotland.com.
E-Counting
Another innovation for 3 May 2007 will be the introduction of electronic counting - E-counting. This will speed up the count process and ensure complete accuracy in the calculation of the result of the local government election under the new system.