VOTERS head to the polls today for the European elections.

The elections had initially not been planned to take place, with the country due to exit the European Union on March 29 after voting in a referendum in June 2016 to leave.

However, as the British government and the European Council agreed to delay the UK's withdrawal, the elections are taking place.

There are nine political parties and two independent candidates standing to represent the North West region in the European Parliament, with eight seats available.

The parties standing in the North West are: The Brexit Party; Change UK - The Independent Group; Conservatives; English Democrats; Green Party; Labour Party; Liberal Democrats; UK European Union Party; UK Independence Party.

The two independent candidates are Mohammad Aslam and Tommy Robinson.

More than five million electors across the North West - Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside - will have the opportunity to vote.

According to the latest YouGov national poll the Brexit Party had a strong lead with 37 per cent of the vote, with the Liberal Democrats second on 19 per cent.

In the last EU elections to take place in 2014, UKIP topped the national vote with 26.6 per cent.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum held in June 2016.

How do EU elections work?

The electoral system used for the elections to the European Parliamentary in England, Scotland and Wales is a Regional List System of Proportional Representation which allocates seats in the European Parliament in approximate proportion to the number of votes cast for political parties and independent candidates within each region.

Each political party nominates their candidates and indicates the order in which they want them to be elected. In the North West, parties are able to nominate up to eight candidates. Independent candidates have only one candidate on their 'list'. Electors vote for a party list or the one independent candidate.

On May 23, the ballot papers received by the 39 local Returning Officers across the North West will be counted in local count centres and the number of votes cast for each party or independent candidate will be collated in Manchester by the Regional Returning Officer for the North West.

Once the count is complete and confirmed on Sunday, May 26.

•The party with the highest number of votes is allocated the first seat. The candidate at the top of the party's list is elected.

•The votes of the party winning the first seat are then divided by the number of seats they have won + 1 (ie 2) and the resultant number of votes go forward to be compared with the number of votes for the other parties and candidates to decide who wins the next seat.

•The exercise is then repeated. As each successful party wins its first seat, its votes are divided by 2. This divisor is then increased by 1 each time this party wins a further seat. (NB it is the total number of votes cast for the party which is divided by the divisor, NOT the number resulting from the previous division.)

•In the event that an independent candidate is elected, or all the candidates on a party's list have been elected, the votes cast for that party are excluded from the remainder of the exercise.