Council elections 2022 – all the manifestos – find them here

When you vote on 5 May you are voting for your preferred candidate as your number one choice, and since the voting system is the Single Transferable Vote, you will also rank other candidates in numerical order.

Voters may cast a ballot for only one candidate or all of them – and opinion is divided on which way is best.

So that you can decide who to vote for we have gathered up all the political manifestos of the main political parties here. If you have any other manifestos which we have missed then please let us know.

The Returning Officer will calculate the quota which is the number of votes a candidate needs to get elected. This is different in each ward. The quota is worked out based on the number of councillor positions and the number of votes cast.

Each voter can only vote once but rather than put an X in one box you will be asked to rank candidates in numerical order according to your preference – with number 1 as the favourite. If there are two candidates from the same party it will be possible for you to vote for both if you wish.

The votes will be counted electronically at the EICC in Edinburgh on 6 May, and when the counting has finished, any candidate who has more number ones than they need to achieve the quota is elected.

So that the other votes are not wasted any votes above the quota are redistributed to the voter’s second favourite candidate and so on until the least popular are removed and councillor positions are filled.

The City of Edinburgh Council also explains the voting system here.