With less than a week to go before Moray votes on who our representative will be in the next Scottish Parliament – our first-time voter Lewis Mitchell updates us on his thoughts.

Lewis Writes

With one week gone by since I last put my views across on my indecision concerning the elections, and only a week left to go before I'll be casting my vote, I'm finally starting to weigh up the options constructively and come towards a decision on which way to vote in my first ever election.

One of the things that has bothered me somewhat with our Liberal Democrats candidate, Jamie Paterson, seems almost naïve to mention, but it's hard to ignore the fact that he's standing for election in Moray while living in Edinburgh.

The mere issue of 170 miles or so gives me the impression that he may well be out of touch with the wants, and needs, of the people of Moray.

By all means I could be wrong, but our 'ConDem' coalition in Westminster has seen the Liberal Democrats' popularity take a huge nosedive across the country, and so it may well be difficult for them to gain the votes that they'll need.

Certainly, with Moray being described as an SNP stronghold, it could be that we see Richard Lochhead regain his seat as MSP.

But I think that many people are starting to lose sight of the long-term factors that would have affected voting behaviour in years gone by, and the allegiance that people may have had with certain parties could quite easily change.

Some of the SNP's policies when thought of nationally are hard to disagree with, but what's going to happen with Moray?

For example, I recently attempted to speak to the local SNP office to question a few things in their manifesto, but I was then passed on to the head office and from there several different people, just to ask a simple question!

The SNP are pledging a £50 million 'youth fund' but what exactly this youth fund was, seemed to bring up more questions than answers from the people I spoke to.

It was a little disheartening to find that the party themselves couldn't even tell me what they were promising!

From those I've spoken to I'm getting the impression that the Conservatives may have a a good result come May 5, and having already landed a high number of votes both in the Scottish and general elections back in 2007, I can see them having a close run-in with the SNP.

What Douglas Ross has in his favour is an awful lot of charisma, and he is well-liked in the area, but the major issue for the Conservatives is that it was the party in Westminster that has put the future of Moray in doubt.

I do not agree with the SNP's huge independence push, which will no doubt put me in the line for some abuse – I'm just getting the feeling that change is something in Moray that we all need.