A HUGE billboard urging Scots to use both of their votes to protect Nicola Sturgeon’s majority at Holyrood has been unveiled by the SNP as the party intensified its campaign message that independence supporters should back its candidates in both the constituency and regional list sections of the ballot.
The poster displaying a slogan of “don’t just hope for a better Scotland, vote for one” alongside an image of Sturgeon is clearly targeted at the other pro-independence parties such as the Scottish Greens and the left-wing electoral alliance Rise.
SNP campaign bosses unveiled the billboard adverts, which will be appearing this week at sites across Scotland. As the parties enter the final full week of campaigning.
John Swinney, the SNP campaign director, speaking ahead of the poster launch, suggested that independence supporters who give their second vote to other pro-independence parties were harming the prospect of a second overall majority for Sturgeon’s party. “There are just 10 full days of campaigning left before the polls open and voters will have the chance to choose their government and to decide who they want to be First Minister,” he said.
“The SNP campaign will be working right up to the last minute to earn voters trust and show that we are the only party with the strength, the unity and the vision to take Scotland forward and that in Nicola Sturgeon we have the only credible candidate for First Minister. We have set a bold, ambitious and transformative vision for Scotland and by using both votes for the SNP on May 5 people can vote for a better Scotland.”
Swinney’s stark message came after the SNP, which is set for another landslide at the Holyrood elections, hit back following a study by Professor John Curtice, one of Scotland’s top political scientists, which suggested that independence supporters risk “wasting” their regional list – or second – vote unless they back another pro-independence party such as the Greens.
In the report commissioned by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) Scotland, Curtice collated and analysed recent opinion polls and projected that the SNP will win all but three constituencies, but – because the electoral system makes it more difficult for a party which dominates in the constituency vote to get list MSPs elected – return only two regional list MSPs.
An influential SNP MP accused parties which “claim to support independence” of a “profoundly disingenuous” campaign to split the SNP vote which will maximise unionist voices in Holyrood. Mhairi Black said calls for nationalists to give their regional list vote to another pro-independence party are “in some cases a wilful attempt to mislead people as to how that system works”.
Sarah Beattie-Smith, elections and campaigns co-convener, claimed the election of her party’s candidates would mean more radical voices in the Scottish Parliament.
Beattie-Smith, a Scottish Green candidate in the South of Scotland, said: “Greens agree a better Scotland is possible but voters know to achieve this we’re going to need a bolder Holyrood. That’s why the momentum on the regional vote in this election is with the Greens. With our track record of constructive pressure and our ambition on fairer taxes, better housing and new jobs, our team of candidates is ready to get to work.
Green regional votes will make all the difference to our parliament and we are working hard for every crucial vote.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale will today set out a manifesto commitment to introduce universal access to the minor ailments service in community pharmacies as part of Labour’s plan to tackle the GP crisis.
Dugdale, speaking ahead of Scottish Labour’s election manifesto launch on Wednesday, said: “The NHS is the Labour Party’s proudest achievement. We created a health service free at the point of need and will always commit to protecting that key principle. Under Labour the health budget will be protected in real terms.
“Our NHS was established in the 1940s and now we need to make it fit for the 2040s by investing in the future. Tackling the GP crisis that has emerged under the SNP must be part of that. We will guarantee patients an appointment at their local GP surgery within 48 hours. If somebody needs to see a GP they will see one within 48 hours. If they need to see a specialist nurse they will see one within 48 hours. Unlike the SNP, we will invest in family doctors and primary care.”
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