Voters are going to the polls at the moment to interchange shamed MP Margaret Ferrier.
Ms Ferrier was ousted from her Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat in August following a profitable recall petition for breaching COVID restrictions throughout lockdown in 2020.
Fourteen candidates are on the poll for the hotly contested seat.
Ms Ferrier, who gained the seat for the SNP in 2019, was pressured to sit down as an unbiased after dropping the social gathering whip when her COVID breach got here to gentle.
The SNP’s majority in 2019 was 5,230, with the social gathering successful 44% of the vote and Scottish Labour in second place on 35%. To win the seat again, Scottish Labour wants a swing within the share of the vote of 4.9 share factors.
The SNP are fielding South Lanarkshire councillor Katy Loudon, whereas Scottish Labour are championing trainer Michael Shanks.
The Scottish Conservatives are backing Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, pupil Cameron Eadie is standing for the Scottish Greens, and information analyst Gloria Adebo is working for the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
Voting will happen between 7am and 10pm. The depend will then start at South Lanarkshire Council headquarters in Hamilton, with the end result anticipated within the early hours of Friday morning.
Who is standing?
• Gloria Adebo (Scottish Liberal Democrats)
• Bill Bonnar (Scottish Socialist Party)
• Garry Cooke
• Andrew Daly (Independent)
• Cameron Eadie (Scottish Green Party)
• Prince Ankit Love, Emperor of India
• Niall Fraser (Scottish Family Party)
• Ewan Hoyle (Volt UK)
• Thomas Kerr (Scottish Conservatives)
• Katy Loudon (SNP)
• Christopher Sermanni (Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition)
• Michael Shanks (Scottish Labour Party)
• David Stark (Reform UK)
• Colette Walker (Independence for Scotland Party)
Why is the by-election happening?
Margaret Ferrier misplaced her seat at Westminster for breaching COVID guidelines.
Ms Ferrier developed COVID signs on Saturday 26 September 2020, and after taking a check nonetheless went to church and had lunch with a member of the family the next day.
The guidelines on the time said Ms Ferrier ought to have been isolating till she obtained her check end result.
On the Monday, nonetheless awaiting the results of the check, she travelled by prepare from Glasgow to London, took half in a Commons debate and ate within the members’ tearoom in parliament.
That night she obtained a textual content telling her the check was constructive, however as a substitute of isolating she travelled again to Scotland by prepare the next morning.
In 2021 she was charged by police and later ordered to undertake 270 hours of unpaid work after admitting culpably and recklessly exposing the general public “to the risk of infection, illness and death” on account of her behaviour.
She was subsequently suspended from the Commons for 30 days, which triggered the recall petition.
Out of the 81,123 citizens, 11,896 (14.66%) individuals signed the petition – which was greater than the ten% wanted to oust Ms Ferrier from the seat.
Source: information.sky.com”