Millions to Vote in UK Elections on 7 May as Registration Deadline Approaches

On 7 May millions of people will be able to vote in elections across Great Britain. There are votes for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and councils and mayors in some parts of England. Candidates have been announced for all the elections. The deadline to register to vote for all elections is 23:59 on 20 April. Use our tool to see who you can vote for. All 129 seats are up for election in the Scottish Parliament. The last election was in 2021 when the SNP fell one seat short of a majority. There are 73 constituencies and each elect one MSP. This is done by a first-past-the-post system of voting where the candidate with the most votes wins. The other 56 MSPs are elected to represent one of eight regions. Each region elects seven members using a form of proportional representation. There have been boundary changes for this election so some constituencies have changed name and shape. The Welsh Parliament is expanding from 60 to 96 seats and a new electoral system is being introduced. The boundaries are changing here too. The old constituencies and regions are being replaced with 16 new constituencies that will each elect six members using a system of proportional representation. Labour held half of the seats after the last election in 2021. There are more than 5,000 councillors up for election across 136 councils on 7 May. They are standing for a mixture of district, metropolitan, unitary and county councils. Outside the capital there are elections in the West Midlands, the North West, as well as other areas scattered across England. There are also six county council elections, three in East Anglia and three in the South East. Labour are defending the most seats with more than 2,500, the Conservatives over 1,300 and the Lib Dems just under 700.