Glasgow City Council elections will be held on 5 May. Read on to find out who can vote, how the counting works, who is standing for election in Govanhill and the Southside Central ward.

Find out more about your election candidates…

We sent 8 questions written by our readers to all 10 candidates standing to represent Southside Central in the 2022 council elections, and will be sharing their answers as we receive them.

What elections are happening in May?

Local government elections are held every five years in Scotland – it was increased from four years as part of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Bill in 2020. Registered eligible voters get to vote for the councillors they want to represent their ward in the local authority, in this case Glasgow City Council. Residents of Govanhill live in the Southside Central ward, which elects four representatives. There are 85 seats in total which come from 23 wards. The party or coalition with the majority of seats forms the Administration which appoints the leader and controls the running of the council

According to the Scottish Government website, local authorities have a number of powers and duties which are set out in legislation:

mandatory duties – such as providing schooling and social work services
permissive powers – such as economic development and recreation services
regulatory powers – such as trading standards, environmental health as well as licensing for taxis and public houses

Find out more about what powers the council holds, and who wields the power in this factsheet.

The vote will take place on the 5 May. Polling stations are open from 7am until 10pm. You don’t need your poll card or any form of ID. You just need to provide your name and address - and to have registered before the 18 April deadline.

You can find your nearest polling station by clicking on this link. You can also register for a postal or proxy (when someone else votes on your behalf) voting.

Who can vote in Glasgow council elections?

You can vote in this election if you are registered to vote in Scotland and will be aged 16 or over on Thursday 5 May 2022. You must also be:

a British or Irish citizen, or
a Commonwealth, European Union citizen or any other foreign national who has permission to enter or remain in the UK, or who does not need such permission

If you are still not sure whether or not you are eligible, you can check your eligibility using this link.

You must register to vote again, every time you move house. If you are not sure if you are already registered to vote, you can find this out by phoning 0141 287 4444 or emailing voters.roll@fs.glasgow.gov.uk.

Which Glasgow City Council ward do I live in?

Southside Central ward includes the Gorbals, Hutchesontown, Govanhill, Queen’s Park, Crosshill and Oatlands. If you’re not sure which ward you are in, you can check by entering your address using the button below.

which ward am I in?

How are the votes counted?

The votes will be counted on 6 May, when an electronic counting system will be used and dedicated Count Centres will be in place for each of the 32 Councils in Scotland. The counts are expected to be completed by late afternoon on 6 May.

Members are elected as councillors using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. The quota for each ward is worked out by dividing the number of valid ballot papers (total votes cast minus any rejected papers) by one more than the number of vacancies plus one.

So in the case of the Southside Central ward, if 7000 valid votes were cast, and there are four seats to be filled, the quota is (7000/4+1)+1, which would make a total of 1401. So in this instance, if a candidate reached or exceeded 1401 seats they would be elected. The value of the surplus votes (above this number) for elected candidates would be transferred to next valid candidate in order of preference on each individual ballot paper.

For more information, see this guide, or the table below from the last elections.

Who currently holds the Glasgow Southside Central council seats?

In 2017, the electorate consisted of 18,946. There were 7255 valid votes casts, meaning the turnout was 40 percent.

The current four seats allocated to the Southside Central ward are held the following incumbents. The percentage shown are for the amount of first preference votes the candidates received in 2017.

Soryia Siddique - Labour (18.35%)
Mhairi Hunter - SNP (17.4%)
Alexander Belic - SNP (17.1%)
James Scanlon - Labour (16.4%)

From Wikipedia - electoral results from 2017 Glasgow council elections

The current make up of Glasgow City Council following the 2017 elections.

Who can I vote for in Glasgow Southside Central in 2022?

There are 10 candidates standing in total representing a total of seven parties, while one candidate is standing as an independent.

Alexander Belic - SNP (incumbent)
Kamran Butt - Alba
Paul Robert Donnelly - Scottish Socialist
Jamie Dyer - independent
Elaine Gallagher - Green
Sam Glasgow-Jackson - Liberal Democrats
Mhairi Hunter - SNP (incumbent)
Tariq Parvez - Conservative
James Scanlon - Labour (incumbent)
Soryia Siddique - Labour (incumbent)

Greater Govanhill will be putting questions to each of the candidates standing in our local area based on what our readers have told us are the most important issues to them. We’ll be sharing their answers on this website. Have your say by filling in our short form.

Can you help to translate the above information into any of Govanhill’s community languages? If so, email hello@greatergovanhill.com