Students of the University of Edinburgh will be some of the most powerful in the country on Thursday 8 June. The constituency of Edinburgh South is the only Scottish constituency with a Labour MP. In 2015, Ian Murray received 19,293 and the SNP candidate Neil Hay received 16,656, making it a close marginal.
If you want to make your voice heard, but aren’t quite sure how, here is The Student’s helpful guide.
Who can vote?
You qualify to vote if you are:
- A British Citizen
- A qualifying Commonwealth citizen resident in the UK. A qualifying citizen is one who has leave to enter or remain in the UK, or does not require leave. The definition of Commonwealth citizens extends to British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
EU citizens (unless citizens of the Republic of Ireland, Cyprus or Malta) cannot vote in the UK general election.
If you are unsure whether or not you can vote, check here https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/can-i-vote/who-can-register-to-vote.
How to register?
You have to be registered to vote. The deadline for registering to vote in the 2017 General Election is 11.59pm on Monday 22 May.
To register to vote if you live in England, Scotland or Wales, click here gov.uk/register-to-vote.
To register to vote if you live in Northern Ireland, click here https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/register-to-vote/register-to-vote-in-northern-ireland.
If you aren’t sure that you’ve registered to vote, you can check by contacting your local electoral registration office.
Where to vote?
You can be registered in both your home constituency and university constituency. You can decide where you’d rather cast your vote.
This website tells you where your vote will have the biggest impact http://ge2017.com/students.
How to vote?
There are three different ways:
- Voting in person: this is where you vote at a polling station on the day. https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/how-do-i-vote/voting-in-person
- Voting by post: if you won’t be in the constituency where you want your vote registered on the day, you can apply for a postal vote. The deadline to register for a postal vote is 5pm on Tuesday 23 May. Here is the link to apply for a postal vote https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-a-postal-vote
- Voting by proxy: this happens when you aren’t able to cast your vote in person, so you can get someone you trust to vote on your behalf. The deadline to register for a proxy vote is Thursday 8 June is 5pm on Wednesday 31 May. Here is more information https://www.yourvotematters.co.uk/how-do-i-vote/voting-by-proxy.
Who to vote for?
To find out what consistency you live in, use this website https://constituencyfinder.digiminster.com.
Here is a helpful guide to comparing manifestos https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2017/may/19/who-should-i-vote-for-the-uk-election-manifestos-compared.
Image Credit: Wikimedia