Polls will open across Fermanagh South Tyrone next Thursday morning at 7am when voting for the Northern Ireland Assembly elections begin, marking the first Assembly election since 2017.

The people of the constituency will be asked to use their vote on a pool of 16 local candidates, all hoping to be elected as one of five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).

Many will have already been issued with polling cards, which will give details on the voting process, including where your polling station is. If you have not received a polling card, you can still vote if you are on the electoral register.

READ MORE: Fermanagh South Tyrone election 2022: full list of candidates

You do not need to bring your polling card with you to vote. You must bring a form of photographic ID (seven different types are accepted); your ID does not have to be current, but the photograph must bear enough of a likeness to allow polling centre staff to confirm your identity.

The polling station will be open between 7am and 10pm on the day of the election. Any voter who is in a queue at the polling station at 10pm will be able to vote.

This election will use Single Transferable Voting (STV), a form of Proportional Representation (PR), with the electoral system designed to make sure that the candidates who are elected represent accurately the opinions of the voters.

On the ballot paper, mark a ‘1’ against your first preferred candidate, a ‘2’ against your second preferred candidate, and so on, for as many candidates as you wish. Candidates will be displayed in alphabetical order by surname.

The votes for Fermanagh and South Tyrone will be counted in the Meadowbank Sports Arena, Magherafelt on Friday May 6. The counts will be held in three venues across Northern Ireland, and it is believed that constituencies will be counted simultaneously.

At the count centre, the first preference votes for each candidate are added up, and any candidate who has achieved this quota is elected, with their surplus transferred to the number ‘2’ preference on ballots.

If candidates do not meet the quota, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated, and the second preference votes are transferred to other candidates. These processes are repeated until all the seats are filled.

It is worth noting that if you test positive for Covid-19, or if you have symptoms of Covid-19, you will still be allowed to vote at polling stations next week.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Virginia McVea, said it has been "directed that in Northern Ireland, the normal absent vote legislation should apply – i.e., proxy and postal – so there has been no change in Northern Ireland to make allowance for Covid-19”.