AS the country goes to the polls tomorrow to elect the UK's next government, it's also election time for Bradford Council.

A third of the seats on the Council are up for grabs, with the ruling Labour group fighting to retain overall control.

Labour has the slimmest of majorities, holding 46 of the 90 available seats, but all this could change after polling day.

YOUR LOCAL ELECTION CANDIDATES

A controversial cull of some of Labour's most prominent councillors has added another layer of intrigue to this year's election.

The party said it had been keen to learn lessons from its defeat at the hands of Respect's George Galloway in the 2012 by-election, and had been running programmes to find potential new councillors.

LOCAL ELECTIONS: THE PARTY LEADERS' STATEMENTS

As a result of this, a handful of sitting Labour councillors whose terms were ending this year found they had not been selected to run again, to make way for new talent.

This included executive member Cllr Amir Hussain (Toller), who is now standing against his old party as an independent.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives will be keen to add to their ranks after the defection of Cllr Michael McCabe (Thornton and Allerton) to Ukip earlier this year, taking the number of Ukip councillors to two.

The newly-reformed Respect group will also be keen to add to its numbers. Earlier this year, four former Respect councillors who had left to sit as independents rejoined the party.

The group then got a fifth member when Cllr Asama Javed defected from Labour, but she is not standing for re-election to the council this year as she is standing for Parliament in Halifax instead.

This means her seat in the Manningham ward is up for grabs.

The Liberal Democrats are fighting to retain two seats, including one held by group leader Cllr Jeanette Sunderland (Idle and Thackley).

And the Greens are standing candidates in every ward for the first time in the group's history.

The count for the local elections will be held on Friday at the Richard Dunn Sports Centre in Odsal and Keighley Leisure Centre from 3pm, with the results expected later that evening.