Watch the soaps explain why they deserve your votes at the British Soap Awards (VIDEO)

The British Soap Awards are less than a fortnight away and while the country is gripped in one kind of election, the UK soaps also want your votes for the serious business of who wins in Manchester on May 16.

The three public voted categories are best soap, best actess and best actor and there's time for you to have your say. But first, who should you vote for and why? The stars themselves explain in these exclusive videos:

DAVOOD GHADAMI & RAKHEE THAKRAR

Kush & Shabnam, EastEnders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_5ZpfSgpnU

CHARLOTTE BELLAMY

Laurel Dingle – Emmerdale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up9iHZn0eds

COLSON SMITH

Craig Tinker - Coronation Street

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDyyCDCKh9M

KIERON RICHARDSON

Ste Hay - Hollyoaks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBX9pkbZZUg

JESSICA REGAN & ELIZABETH DERMOT WALSH

Niamh & Zara, Doctors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIxpUQ5rI8o

If that has just made your choices even murkier, What's on TV's own soap experts have looked back at the year in soap and chosen their personal highlights. Watch them discuss their highlights here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECuGN7eCXgg

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.