General Election vote count to take place in Orkney

The counting of votes for the Orkney and Shetland Constituency in the upcoming General Election will take place in Orkney.

The election takes place on Thursday, June 8, and Returning Officer, Alistair Buchan, has confirmed that the votes will be counted at an overnight count in Kirkwall Grammar School.

The votes from Shetland will be transported by plane to Orkney for counting, with a result expected before breakfast time on Friday, June 9.

Mr Buchan said: “Our election teams in both Orkney and Shetland have built up a breadth of experience around the running of elections. Holding the count in Shetland last time allowed us to share and develop the election experience across both teams.

“With the General Election coming hot on the heels of the local council elections, both election teams will be working to full capacity and we’ve taken the decision to hold the election in Orkney simply in the interests of fairness and sharing the workload.

“Orkney Islands Council sent a small team to assist with the Lerwick count in 2015 and I look forward to welcoming some of our Shetland neighbours in June to do the same.”