Election / Polls open as Orkney and Shetland vote for their next MP
THE POLLS are now open as people in Orkney and Shetland decide who will be their next MP.
Polling places opened their doors at 7am and they will close at 10pm. A key change this year is the requirement for photo ID.
The counting of the votes will take place overnight at Kirkwall Grammar School in Orkney and Shetland News will be reporting live from the event.
It is estimated that the declaration should take place at some point between 5am and 5.30am.
There are 34 polling stations across Shetland, from Unst to Dunrossness.
Shetland’s ballot boxes will be flown down to Orkney from Sumburgh Airport on a chartered flight in the early hours of the morning.
The furthest travelled box will be from Unst – with 185 miles between Shetland’s most northerly island and Kirkwall.
There are contingency plans in place if there are weather issues at the Sumburgh or Kirkwall airports. These include a flight from Tingwall or Scalloway Harbour’s pilot boat taking the boxes by sea.
Just under a third of the Orkney and Shetland electorate are postal voters – 10,433 people out of 34,236.
Shetland’s total electorate is 17,138 compared to Orkney’s 17,098.
The election has been contested in Orkney and Shetland by – in alphabetical order – Alex Armitage (Greens), Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrats), Robert Leslie (SNP), Shane Painter (Conservatives), Conor Savage (Labour), Robert Smith (Reform UK).
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