With the Elgin City North by-election taking on even greater importance several candidates are being offered the chance to put their case in a hustings this week.
The Drouthy Cobbler will be the venue for a meeting called by a women’s local political group Moray Women for Independence.
Ensuring proceedings are entirely free of any single political influence will be chair Diane Smith, a freelance project manager.
However, while four of the six candidates will take part in the meeting on Saturday, November 29 from 10am until noon one has declined to take part – the Scottish Labour candidate, Craig Graham – while organisers have been unable to contact the final candidate, independent Sandy Cooper.
The eventual winner of the by-election could well decide the future path of Moray Council, with the existing administration having lost two of its Tory members in recent weeks.
Answering questions at the Hustings will be Kirsty Ella Reid for The Scottish National Party, Alex Griffiths for The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, Ramsay Urquhart for the UK Independence Party and Morvern Forrest of The Scottish Green Party.
Moray Women for Independence organiser Eilidh Myrvang Brown said: “We’ve still a lot to do to get organised as a group, and need to get moving on some of the exciting ideas and ways forward to fundraise and promote the groups activities.
“Our aim is to really meet the objectives of supporting and enabling more women to be actively involved in politics at both a local and national level and make sure our voice is heard right across the political spectrum.
“We are pleased so far with the contribution we feel we are making in a very short space of time and with very limited resources.
“We are ambitious to keep making strides forward to raise the game of how politics is carried out in Moray – leaving it to the ‘old boys’ of politics is no longer a tenable option.”