CAMPAIGNING for the 2024 general election is heating up and the end of the week will mark a significant deadline.

Nominations for candidates close at 4pm on Friday June 7. After then no candidates can be added to or withdrawn from ballot papers.

To stand for election to the House of Commons, candidates must be aged 18 and be a British citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, or an eligible Commonwealth citizen.

Anyone who is subject to bankruptcy restrictions is barred from standing for election along with anyone who is in jail serving a sentence of a year or more.

Anyone guilty of specific election offences is banned from standing for three years and anyone guilty of election corruption or intimidating a candidate, campaigner or election officer cannot be on the ballot paper for five years.

Candidates cannot stand for election for more than one constituency at a time.

Polling day is Thursday July 4 when people will be able to cast their votes between 7am and 10pm before counting begins.

Following boundary changes the political map has changed with the constituencies of Halesowen, Dudley and Stourbridge covering almost all of the population of Dudley borough.

Those constituencies are among the 650 seats in the House of Commons which are up for grabs and, unlike the recent Dudley Council elections, votes will be counted overnight with results likely to be declared in the early hours of July 5.

There are several significant dates in the run-up to polling day. The last day to register to vote is June 18 and people can sign up by visiting www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

In the last general election 21 per cent of the ballots cast were postal votes and new applications for postal votes have to be made before 5pm on June 19 via www.gov.uk/apply-postal-vote.

There are two deadlines on June 26. Anyone who requires a voter authority certificate or who wishes to appoint a proxy to vote for them must have their applications completed at www.gov.uk before 5pm.