23 seats up for grabs in May 4 poll
The nomination deadline for candidates for the Stirling Council elections ended on Wednesday, with 49 people vying for the 23 seats on the authority.
Polling takes place on Thursday, May 4 across all of Scotland’s 32 authorities, including Stirling.
The voting system used for the local council elections is Single Transferable Vote (STV). This means that voters will mark their ballot paper by ranking the candidates in order of preference using numbers - 1 being their first choice, and so on.
Following the recent Scottish Local Government Boundary review the number of councillors to be elected in the Stirling Council area has increased by one to 23 across the seven multimember wards.
Plans had been afoot to split Bridge of Allan into two wards, however the Local Government Boundary Commission ultimately opted to divide the council area into five three-member wards and two four-member wards, creating a 23-member council as opposed to the current 22-member authority.
The decision meant Dunblane and Bridge of Allan (a four member ward) remained as it was, minus the university area, and a four-member ward called Stirling North was created comprising the current Castle ward, the university, Riverside and Logie.
The five remaining are three-member wards: Trossachs and Teith, Forth and