In a provincial election, you have the opportunity to vote for the political party or person you want to govern our province. The leader of the winning party becomes the premier of the province. All elected persons are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs.

Nova Scotia is divided into 52 electoral districts. For each of the districts, there is a corresponding seat in our Legislative Assembly (also called our House of Assembly).

Use the Electoral District Finder to find out which district you are in.

These districts are further divided into polling divisions. Each polling division usually includes 250-450 voters.

On election day, you go to the polling station in your polling division and cast your vote for the candidate of your choice running in your local electoral district. When the polls are closed, all the votes in your polling division are counted. These are then added to the results from all the other polling divisions in your electoral district, as well as the Write-in Ballots, Special and Advance Polls.

When the grand total is counted, the candidate with the majority of votes from that electoral district gets a seat in the Legislative Assembly, and becomes an MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly).

The party with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly becomes the governing party. You would commonly call this the party in power.

Click here for elections results.