{"id":1179431,"date":"2026-08-31T19:23:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179431\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T19:23:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T19:23:18","slug":"council-by-elections-take-place-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179431\/","title":{"rendered":"Council by-elections take place on Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two by-elections will be held in Edinburgh on 3 September \u2013 in Portobello\/Craigmillar (Ward 17) and in Southside\/Newington (Ward 15) wards. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The electorate in Ward 15 is 24,666 and in Ward 17 the number of people eligible to vote is 28,062. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The electronic count will be held at The City Chambers on Thursday evening and The Edinburgh Reporter will be there to bring you the news of the two newest councillors in the capital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the by-elections the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system is used, when voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than using a single cross. Voters can rank as many or as few candidates as they like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polling places will be open from 7am to 10pm on 3 September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Returning Officer for Edinburgh, Paul Lawrence said: \u201cWith these by-elections fast approaching, I encourage residents in these wards to take this opportunity to have their say on Thursday. Please remember your polling cards and check your polling place. These new councillors will represent your communities on issues affecting your local area and Edinburgh as a whole.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur elections pages provide useful information on how the Single Transferable Vote system works \u2013 you can rank candidates in order of preference, choosing as many or few as you\u2019d like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you\u2019re voting by post, please return your completed ballot as soon as possible to make sure your vote is counted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Southside\/Newington Ward information+<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>LIST OF CANDIDATES <\/strong><\/li>\n<li\/>\n<li>Elliott, Ruth \u2013 Scottish Labour Party<\/li>\n<li>Emms, Derrick \u2013 Edinburgh &amp; East Lothian People<\/li>\n<li>Gastel Alejandre, Isabella \u2013 Scottish Greens<\/li>\n<li>Keirdashian, Roisin \u2013 Independent<\/li>\n<li>Khovanov, Artie \u2013 Scottish Liberal Democrats<\/li>\n<li>Layden, Nick \u2013 Scottish Conservative and Unionist<\/li>\n<li>Lucas, Richard Crewe \u2013 Scottish Family Party \u2013 Christian Values<\/li>\n<li>Mackenzie, Sam Alexander \u2013 Scottish National Party (SNP)<\/li>\n<li>Moffat, Sean McGregor \u2013 Alliance for Democracy and Freedom<\/li>\n<li>Neill, Gary \u2013 Reform UK<\/li>\n<li>Rowbotham, Markham \u2013 Edinburgh &amp; East Lothian People<\/li>\n<li>Shillcock, Richard \u2013 Communist Party of Britain<\/li>\n<li>Wilkinson, Marc \u2013 Edinburgh &amp; East Lothian People<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LIST OF POLLING PLACES<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nelson Hall Community Centre (New for 2026)<\/li>\n<li>Blackford and Grange Parish Church Centre<\/li>\n<li>St. Catherine\u2019s Argyle Church<\/li>\n<li>Newington Trinity Church<\/li>\n<li>Reid Memorial Church Hall<\/li>\n<li>75th Braid Scouts\u2019 Millar Hall<\/li>\n<li>Cameron House Community Education Centre<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Portobello\/Craigmillar Ward information+<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>List of Candidates <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ballantine, David Craig \u2013 Alliance for Democracy and Freedom<\/li>\n<li>Deepnarain, Niel \u2013 Scottish Family Party \u2013 Christian Values<\/li>\n<li>Gregson, Pete \u2013 Workers Party of Britain<\/li>\n<li>Martinico, Lorenzo \u2013 Scottish Greens<\/li>\n<li>McGilvray, Silas \u2013 Scottish National Party (SNP)<\/li>\n<li>McLaughlin, Andrew \u2013 Reform UK<\/li>\n<li>Olech, Peter \u2013 Communist Party of Britain<\/li>\n<li>Owen, Liss \u2013 Scottish Liberal Democrats<\/li>\n<li>Wyke, Jim Patrick \u2013 Scottish Labour Party<\/li>\n<li>Young, Haris \u2013 Scottish Conservative and Unionist<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Polling Places (Ward 17):\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Portobello Library (New for 2026)<\/li>\n<li>Branch Out Together<\/li>\n<li>St Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church (New for 2026)<\/li>\n<li>Bingham Community Centre<\/li>\n<li>St Martins Parish Church<\/li>\n<li>Craigmillar Library<\/li>\n<li>Hays Business Centre<\/li>\n<li>Newcraighall Leith Victoria FC<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-attachment-id=\"642403\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/theedinburghreporter.co.uk\/2026\/05\/edinburgh-completes-almost-1500-affordable-houses-in-a-year\/edinburgh-city-chambers-2026-martin-mcadam-25\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theedinburghreporter.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TER-A7407954.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1200,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Edinburgh City Chambers. \u00a9 2026 Martin McAdam\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Edinburgh City Chambers. \u00a9 2026 Martin McAdam&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theedinburghreporter.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TER-A7407954.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TER-A7407954.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-642403\"  \/>Edinburgh City Chambers. \u00a9 2026 Martin McAdam<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two by-elections will be held in Edinburgh on 3 September \u2013 in Portobello\/Craigmillar (Ward 17) and in Southside\/Newington&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4154,4155,4884,712,17934,16,15],"class_list":["post-1179431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-edinburgh-local-news","tag-edinburgh-news","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-the-city-of-edinburgh-council","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117191758860653993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}