by Angela Cole

This is your chance to join the election debate.

Tonight the Kent Messenger will stage a hustings for Maidstone and the Weald constituency, giving our readers the chance to quiz the candidates vying to become your next MP.

We chose Maidstone and the Weald because, no matter what the result on election day, the area will have a new MP. Ann Widdecombe stepped down this year, after 23 years.

We want you to be able to hear first hand what five of the candidates hoping to replace her think about the issues that interest you.

Our informal Hustings at the Local will be held at the historic Royal Albion pub in central Maidstone.

It will be your opportunity to put a question to candidates Helen Grant (Con); Peter Carroll (Lib Dem); Rav Seeruthun (Lab); Stuart Jeffery (Green) and Gareth Kendall (UKIP).

A husting originally referred to a physical platform from which representatives give their views or cast votes. In the 1800s, it evolved to mean any platform on which public nomination of candidates was made, but today it means a meeting where more than one candidate takes part and can be a debate, questions or speeches.

Like the first public TV debate which took the country by storm last week, Hustings at the Local will give each candidate the opportunity to give a short introductory speech.

Questions will be put by KM readers, and the event will be chaired by KM political editor Paul Francis.

Thanks to landlady Sharon Wardell, there will also be refreshments and there will be facilities for visitors to listen at tables in the gardens.

All are welcome - so come along and join the debate!