Residents will return to the polls in early September as two Edinburgh councillors have tendered their resignations following their election to Holyrood.

Residents will vote in the by-elections on 3 September when they to elect one new councillor in Southside/Newington and Portobello/Craigmillar.

Sumita Kumar and Kate Campbell were elected as MSPs May.

Both were SNP councillors, while Ms Kumar was the SNP group leader from 2022 until May 2026 and now serves as the Minister for Equalities and International Development.

The current electorate is 24,304 for Southside/Newington and 27,347 for Portobello/Craigmillar. 

The City of Edinburgh Council stated that the formal Notice of Election will be published on 15 July, and the Election Timetable, Election Notices and Nomination Papers will all be accessible on the Council website.

Returning Officer for Edinburgh, Paul Lawrence said:“I’d like to thank Councillors Kumar and Campbell for their service as elected members and I wish them all the best in their new roles at Holyrood.

“We’ll now begin preparing for these by-elections to make sure our residents are able to make their voices heard and elect their new representatives to the City Chambers.

“I’d urge everyone in these wards to make sure they are registered to vote and to check that they have asked for a postal or proxy vote if that is what they need.”

Nomination papers can be submitted from 10am on 16 July until 4pm on 31 July to the Returning Officer in the City Chambers. Candidates will be confirmed after nominations close on 31 July.

Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 3 September.

The election will use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system where 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.

The deadline to register to vote in these by-elections is 18 August. For those submitting new postal vote applications, the deadline is 19 August and 26 August for new proxy votes.