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With the UK’s Brexit impasse still unresolved, the UK is set to take part in elections for European Parliament on May 23.
Between then and May 26 all EU nations will vote for their representatives with more than 700 people being elected in total, 73 of which will be from the UK.
Members are voted in for five year terms, with those involved in this year’s election set to be in place until 2024.
Following Theresa May’s latest extension request, Britain is expected to participate, even though it is set to leave the bloc within months making it uncertain how long the UK’s MEPs would sit for.
Below, the Standard looks at key details of the vote.
When will the vote take place?
The UK will go to the polling booths on Thursday, May 23, and its citizens as well as those of other EU states are entitled to vote if they are 18 or over.
They must be registered by May 7 to do so.
Votes can be made in person, by post or by proxy.
Other EU nations voting times may differ.
What is the European Parliament?
The European Parliament is part of the legislative body of the European Union.
It works alongside the European Council to decide on the budget and new proposals.
It describes itself as being “a unique example of multinational and multilingual democracy at work”.
It is a transnational directly elected group and in 2014 the votes for it “were the largest transnational elections ever held at the same time”.
What parties are taking part in the UK?
All the UK’s major parties are taking part as well as some other smaller groups.
Conservatives have not released their list yet and is not set to until the deadline, however a number of its MEPs have said they will stand again.
The Labour party has fielded 66 candidates while the Liberal Democrats have 69.
The Green Party has 63, the SNP six and Plaid Cymru four, while in Northern Ireland the DUP and Sinn Fein will both field candidates.
Change UK, the new party of Labour and Tory defectors, has 70.
Ukip and the newly formed Brexit party are also fielding candidates.
UKIP won the most seats last time out but former leader Nigel Farage will hope his new Brexit Party group will be able to win some of these places, having exuded confidence when talking about the votes.
How are votes allocated?
In the UK the votes are split across 12 regions; nine in England then Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Results are dictated using proportional representation.
Voters select one party when they take to the polls.
In the first round of vote counting, the party with the most votes wins a seat for whoever tops the list.
The leading number of votes is then halved and the list then rearranged, with whoever comes out on top getting the second seat.
This process is then repeated until all seats for each region are allocated.
The system is named the D’Hondt system after the Belgium mathematician who developed it.
In Northern Ireland, the system used is the “single transferable vote” and those taking to the booths rank their candidates in order of preference.
Votes are totalled then the number of votes needed for a seat are worked out.
The candidate who receives this quota then gets a seat and the surplus votes for them are transferred to other candidates based on the preferences.
This is repeated until the seats are filled.
What happens when the UK leaves?
The UK is set to leave the EU bloc just months after these elections and the date could be sooner if a deal is approved.
There is the chance Brexit could happen prior to May 23, in which case the PM said the UK will not take part.
The EU already plans to reduce its number of seats to 705 when the UK leaves and a number of these will be reallocated once the UK leaves, while others set aside for potential new members in future.
There is a potential of the MEPs not taking their seats.
Or they would until the UK leaves then after this their places would become vacant.
