Local Elections - wow!

I just got my postal ballot paper in. I signed up for a postal ballot last year because local polling stations don't allow for parking nearby and I wasn't up to walking then.

In my area, there are 9 candidates for the council. And that would be the end of the good news, folks.

All the candidates here are men.
1 is SNP
1 is Labour
2 are Tories
1 is LibDem
3 are 'independents'
1 is Scottish Libertarian Party

1 of the independents is a suspended Tory and the other 2 are local businessmen with who knows how much or how little political experience. Never mind what their agenda is.

I have to rank these guys in order of popularity. The only candidate in favour of independence is the SNP man. I'm a Green so I want at least one councillor who is pro-independence and has sympathy with Green policies of social justice, equality, etc. I'll vote for him. Then what? I'm not voting Tory. They have 2 official and one unofficial candidates but I can't even find their manifesto for the Scottish council elections online. Nor am I going for the Scottish Libertarian, who I think is a Tory/UKIP by another name. The Labour guy has been around for yonks and does his best, although the introduction to Labour's manifesto for local government begins with an attack on Nicola Sturgeon over cuts to local government budgets. I wish the Labour Party in Scotland could understand who holds the purse strings - and it ain't Edinburgh. I've voted LibDem in the past (locally) to keep the Tories out but they are anti-independence, although their manifesto says they are campaigning on local government issues, so that's something.

Whatever I do, there are only 3 candidates I can possibly vote for.

Which brings me to my next questions:

Where are all the women? Not selected? Not coming forward?

Where are the young people? (same questions as above)

We're less than 3 weeks away from the elections, so where is everybody?

I'm thinking back to the general election of 2015, the Independence Referendum of 2014 and the EU referendum of 2016, when the streets were flooded with people campaigning for their parties, there was lots of information and everyone had an opinion. Maybe it's true: we've run out of puff - been over-consulted and have slipped into apathy. The problem is that the 'big boys', the Tories are using their UK-wide organisations and a lot of cash to promote the idea that these local elections are not local at all but a way to tell the SNP we don't want a second referendum on independence.

I know the Greens are engaged in the local government elections but have to pick their targets carefully because of lack of funding, but where are the rest of the parties?