CANDIDATES for Hartlepool's mayoral elections gathered in the town yesterday for a draw to decide the running order for a special election booklet.

Hartlepool Council is producing the free booklet, which will be distributed around the town and which contains information on each of the seven candidates.

The names of the candidates were drawn out of a hat to decide the order in which they would appear in the booklet.

The election hopefuls, which include current mayor Stuart Drummond, will be given two sides of A5 in the publication to put their message across ahead of the election on May 5.

Mayor Drummond won the draw at Hartlepool Civic Centre, so will see his election message appear first in the booklet.