Following the extension to Article 50 granted on 10th April 2019, the UK is making preparations in case it has to participate in the European Elections.
If these elections take place, they will be held on Thursday 23 May 2019, with the count taking place on Sunday 26 May.
What are we voting for?
The European elections is where the voters in the EU member states vote for the MEPs who they wish to represent them in the European Parliament.
Do I need to register to vote in these elections?
If you’re already on the electoral register, then you should automatically receive your voting card. If you’re not on the register, then the deadline for registering to vote in the European elections is midnight on Tuesday 7 May 2019.
The election process is different from that used in other UK elections, here’s how it works
Elections for the European Parliament use a List PR system of voting, where everyone gets to cast a single vote for the party of their choice, and MEPs are elected in multi-seat regional constituencies, with seats allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the votes.
For Stone, we fall into the West Midlands region, which is allocated seven MEP’s. On election day you will have a ballot paper where you cast one vote for the party you wish to vote for.
At the results count, seats are then allocated in rounds with the first seat going to the party with the most votes. The seats are then allocated proportionally to the share of votes cast for each party using the D’Hondt method of calculation: each new seat is given to the party with the greatest number of votes divided by the number of those already allocated plus one.
Who can I vote for?
As mentioned in the section above you’re casting a single vote for one party.
The West Midlands region has the following parties standing, each fielding the full seven candidates.
- Change UK – The Independent Group
- Conservative and Unionist Party
- Green Party
- Labour Party
- Liberal Democrats
- The Brexit Party
- UKIP
As you don’t vote for candidates specifically we’ve not listed them out but you can find them listed here -> West Midlands Candidates
Who currently represents the West Midlands?
The West Midlands is currently made up of the following MEPs
- Anthea McIntyre – Conservative – MEP Ranking 143rd of 749 MEPs
- Daniel Dalton – Conservative – MEP Ranking 9th of 749 MEPs
- Bill Etheridge – Elected as UKIP, currently Brexit Party – MEP Ranking 675th of 749 MEPs
- Jill Seymour – Elected as UKIP, currently Brexit Party – MEP Ranking 677th of 749 MEPs
- James Carver – Elected as UKIP, currently independent – MEP Ranking 648th of 749 MEPs
- Neena Gill – Labour – MEP Ranking 357th of 749 MEPs
- Siôn Simon – Labour – MEP Ranking 517th of 749 MEPs
