Europe and local elections - who's who
Updated on 28 May 2009
Which parties have candidates running in the elections on Thursday 4 June 2009, and what are they standing for.
On 4 June 2009 the UK holds elections to choose local councillors and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
Seventy two MEPs will be elected under a proportional representation system across the UK, reduced from 78 MEPs that currently represent the UK because additional countries have joined the EU since the last elections five years ago.
Use our interactive map to see how each EU country is represented in the European Parliament.
MEPs are elected under a regional list system, where seats are allocated to parties in proportion to their share of the vote.
The UK is divided into 12 electoral regions, which each elect between three and 10 MEPs. 59 MEPs will be elected in nine English regions, six in Scotland, four in Wales. The three MEPs elected in Northern Ireland are chosen under its own system of proportional representation.
For more information on the European parliament elections visit the Electoral Commission website.
English county council elections are also held in many areas on 4 June. Between one and three councillors will represent each ward that makes up the 388 local councils in England - a total of around 20,000 councillors.
To find out if elections are taking place in your area, check the Electoral Commission website.
The deadline to register to vote in the 4 June elections is Tuesday 19 May 2009.
More information on the political parties:
Conservative
- download the European manifesto here.
Labour
- view Labout's election website here.
Liberal Democrats
- view their manifesto for Europe.
Green party
- More information on Greenparty.org.uk.
- View the European election manifesto.
UK Independence Party (UKIP)
- More information on European candidates and policies here.
- View the local election manifesto.
British National Party
- A list of candidates can be found here.
- View the European election manifesto.
Plaid Cymru
- More information on PlaidCymru.org.
- View the European election manifesto.
Scottish National Party
- View the European election manifesto.
- View a full list of European candidates here.
Democratic Unionist Party
- More information on their European election campaign at dup2win.com.
Sinn Fein
- More information on their European election campaign at sinnfeineu.com.
Ulster Unionist Party
- More information on their European election campaign at voteforchangeni.com.
Channel 4 News is not responsible for the content of external websites.
