Don’t miss your chance to cast vote

STEPHEN BARK

More than 80,000 registered voters failed to attend at the ballot box in 2017 – that’s more than the amount of people who voted for the winning candidate.

And if they had exercised their right to vote, they could have tipped the scales 100 times over in two of the region’s three constituencies.

Alarmingly, in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, 5000 more people didn’t vote than did for the winning candidate, Dr Lisa Cameron.

Statistics released by the Electoral Commission showed she was elected as MP for the area with 21,023 votes compared to the 26,023 people who didn’t vote for her.

Those figures also showed that, in Lanark and Hamilton East, there were 26,581 non-voters – 10,000 more than the 16,444 people who voted for the SNP’s winning candidate Angela Crawley.

Rutherglen and Hamilton West saw the most non-voters at 28,925, where Labour’s Ged Killen polled 19,101.

The figures also showed that 37 people in South Lanarkshire tried to vote only to find they weren’t registered, 10 of whom were in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.

Labour group leader, Councillor Joe Fagan, called next month’s election“one of the most important there has been in years,”adding that “nobody should miss out on their chance to vote”.

The East Kilbride Central North said: “People used to say that their vote wouldn’t make a difference or that political parties were all the same. That is absolutely not the case in this election.

“Every Lanarkshire constituency is a marginal constituency and the two main parties are offering radically different visions for the future of the country.

“Make sure you have your say is an election that is not like any other.”