People are heading to the polls today to vote in the general election – and you can follow the local results on our live blog throughout the night.
Six candidates are standing to represent Basingstoke: Terry Bridgeman (Labour), Maria Miller (Conservative), Scott Neville (Libertarian), John Shaw (Liberal Democrat), Alan Stone (UKIP) and Richard Winter (Green).
Mrs Miller has been the town’s MP since 2005. At the 2015 election she secured a majority of 11,063 over Labour.
Alan Stone was UKIP’s challenger in 2015, while John Shaw represented the Liberal Democrats in 2010.
The other candidates have not stood in Basingstoke before.
Basingstoke and Deane is also covered by the North East Hampshire and North West Hampshire seats, representing the more rural areas of the borough.
North East Hampshire includes Hartley Wintney, Hook and Odiham, with six candidates fighting it out.
They are: Robert Blay (Independent), Graham Cockarill (Liberal Democrat), Mike Gascoigne (UKIP), Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative), Barry Jones (Labour) and Chas Spradbery (Green).
Ranil Jayawardena won one of the largest majorities in the country in 2015 with almost 30,000 more votes than Graham Cockarill. Barry Jones and Robert Blay have also fought the seat before.
North West Hampshire includes Whitchurch, Kingsclere, Highclere and Overton, extending all the way past Andover.
The five candidates are: Roger Clark (UKIP), Andy Fitchet (Labour), Dan Hill (Green), Kit Malthouse (Conservative) and Alex Payton (Liberal Democrat).
Kit Malthouse was elected MP in 2015 with a majority of 23,943. Dan Hill and Alex Payton also stood that year.
Polling stations across the borough are open from 7am to 10pm today.
We will be running a blog on our website, basingstokeobserver.co.uk, throughout the night to bring you all the local news and results.
Stories will also appear afterwards online and in next week’s paper.
