AS the country went to the polls yesterday, school pupils in Bolton were holding their own mock general elections.

Turton School and Ladybridge High School transformed their classrooms into polling stations for youngsters to get a taste of a real election.

As The Bolton News went to press last night the UK polls were just closing ­— but the votes cast by pupils in lessons had already been counted.

At Ladybridge young people cast their votes based on the candidates standing in the Bolton West constituency.

While at Turton School in Bromley Cross, they votes for either the Conservative Party led by Jack Beck, Labour Party led by Charlotte Fearn, Lib-Dems led by Sam Grogan and the Green Party led by Maya Bali ­— all sixth form students.

The Bolton News:

Young people go to the polls at Turton School

Kelly Bali, teacher of government and politics, said: “We ran the mock election just like the general election, with voters going to the polls, crossing a name on their list, and counting the votes."

Miss Bali said: “If you vote for the first time when you turn 18 then you are likely to vote for the rest of your life.” Ladybridge High School’s results have been submitted to the Hansard Society which is recording results from such elections nationally.

The Bolton News:

Turton pupils cast their vote

Pupils at the school voted for Labour, which took 81 per cent of the vote, with the Green Party polling 9 per cent, Conservatives 6 per cent and Lib Dems 4 per cent

She added: “We made the mock election as close to the general election as possible, with pupils having to put their name on the electoral register. We wanted to show the young people that a general election is more than just voting.”

At Turton the result was in favour of Labour followed by the Conservative party and the Greens third. Thousands of people last night followed the twists and turns of the election count via a live blog on The Bolton News website.

Full results of the election locally and nationally are on our website today – with full analysis of the results in Bolton West, Bolton North East and Bolton South East in tomorrow's newspaper.