The European elections on May 23rd are fast approaching and it has now been confirmed that the UK will be electing MEPs (members of the European Parliament), after it was initially thought Britain would have left the EU two months ago.

The European Parliament creates laws and approves budgets for the European Union, and is made up of elected members from all 28 member states. Currently, the European Parliament is made up of 751 MEPs, with 73 of these coming from the UK. Parties from across Europe work together in separate groups, based on ideology, to pass legislation.

EU elections have a different voting system to other elections held in the UK. In the Scotland, Wales and England, MEPs are elected using the D’Hondt method, a voting method which is more proportional than first-past-the-post.

Voters cast their ballot for a party, rather than an individual candidate, with candidates running on a party list.

This video from the BBC’s EU election coverage in 2009 explains how the D’Hondt method works.

Scotland elects six of the UK’s 73 MEPs. At the last EU election, Scotland elected 2 SNP MEPs, 2 Labour, 1 Conservative and 1 UKIP.

Candidates

Brexit Party

  1. Louis Stedman-Bryce
  2. Karina Walker
  3. James Ferguson-Hannah
  4. Stuart Waiton
  5. Paul Aitken
  6. Calum Walker

Change UK

  1. David Macdonald (has since become an independent)
  2. Peter Griffiths
  3. Kate Forman
  4. Heather Astbury
  5. Colin McFadyen
  6. Catherine Edgeworth

Conservative Party

  1. Nosheena Mobarik
  2. Iain McGill
  3. Shona Haslam
  4. Iain Whyte
  5. Andrea Gee
  6. Michael Kusznir

Green Party

  1. Maggie Chapman
  2. Lorna Slater
  3. Gillian Mackay
  4. Chas Booth
  5. Mags Hall
  6. Allan Faulds

Independent

  1. Ken Parke
  2. Gordon Edgar

Labour Party

  1. David Martin
  2. Jayne Baxter
  3. Craig Miller
  4. Amy Lee Fraioli
  5. Callum O’Dwyer
  6. Angela Bretherton

Liberal Democrats

  1. Sheila Ritchie
  2. Fred Mackintosh
  3. Catriona Bhatia
  4. Vita Zaporozcenko
  5. John Edward
  6. Clive Sneddon

SNP

  1. Alyn Smith
  2. Christian Allard
  3. Aileen McLeod
  4. Margaret Ferrier
  5. Heather Anderson
  6. Alex Kerr

UKIP

  1. Donald Mackay
  2. Janice Mackay
  3. Otto Inglis
  4. Mark Meechan
  5. Roy Hill
  6. Neil Wilson
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