Residents across Greater Manchester are heading to the polls in the local council elections for 2023.
Our boroughs are expected to largely remain the same, but Bolton and Stockport are two tightly contested councils that could see control shift.
Bolton is the only borough in Greater Manchester currently controlled by the Conservatives, and with every council seat up for grabs, both Labour and the Tories will be hoping to win a majority.
Labour needs 12 gains whereas the Tories only need five.
The elections are a major test for the Conservative government nationally with Rishi Sunak being the third prime minister since the polls were last open.
This year is also the first time that voters will need to bring identification with them in order to cast their votes, in what the government has described as a measure to tackle voter fraud.
It’s caused fear that many people could be put off voting or forget to bring their ID with them which could affect turnout figures across the country.
Elections will take place at the 10 councils across our region – Bolton, Stockport, Oldham, Manchester, Tameside, Rochdale, Salford, Trafford, Bury and Wigan.
Six of those – Bolton, Stockport, Oldham, Wigan, Trafford and Tameside – will be ‘all out’ elections with every seat on the council up for grabs.
Ballot papers will be counted overnight in Bolton, Salford and Tameside with results expected in the early hours. The remaining seven boroughs should declare on Friday.
Polling stations across Greater Manchester will be open until 10pm on Thursday and Mancunian Matters will have live updates from each of the counts as results come in.
