MINISTERS may face postponing the Holyrood election next year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, The National has been told.
The SNP have put on hold the process of selecting their candidates in situations when a SNP MSP is standing down or where a constituency is held by an opposition party.
And over the last few days, as the scale of the crisis began to emerge, MSPs have begun to discuss whether the Scottish Government may have to delay the poll for a year.
“People around Holyrood are talking about the parliament being extended and the election being suspended next year,” one senior SNP figure told The National. “A year delay is being talked about.
“The pandemic is consuming the parliament and government business – efforts to protect people’s health, businesses and the wider economy – and it’s not known when the crisis is going to be over.”
A meeting due to take place last weekend of the SNP’s national executive committee, where discussions were due to take place about the selection process, was cancelled at the last minute.
It is understood the reasoning for the decision was that branch meetings, hustings and selection boards – all of which would involve large numbers of people gathered in a room – could not take place following the nationwide implementation of social-distancing measures to curb the virus spread.
The pandemic is putting unprecedented pressure on the nation’s health service, the economy and all aspects of modern life.
A council by-election in Clackmannanshire due to take place on Thursday was postponed and a series of others due to be held in the coming weeks, including ones in Edinburgh and North Lanarkshire, are also to be put on hold until later. It is understood to be he first time in the modern era that by elections are been postponed.
Earlier this week, the UK Government introduced emergency legislation proposing a range of special measures to deal with the pandemic. It is understood that a provision to postpone elections is among the plans under consideration in the UK bill, which will be scrutinised by Holyrood committees next week. Holyrood has been asked by the UK Government to give its legislative consent to the bill.
A second SNP source said: “The emergency legislation gives power to Scottish ministers to suspend elections.
“So in the first instance they can cancel by-elections and it’s certainly being mooted that, depending on how long the pandemic goes on for, they might have to suspend the Holyrood election.”
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic hitting Scotland, senior SNP politicians had described the 2021 Holyrood election as the “most important ever” arguing that delivering a pro-independence majority would be crucial in securing a mandate for a second independence referendum.
Writing in The National in January, Angus Robertson, the SNP’s former deputy leader, said: “‘Hard as it is to endure, given the repeated electoral mandates for an independence referendum, the reality is that the issue of Indyref2 will be decided in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.
‘With a majority of pro-independence MSPs, it will be impossible to oppose Scottish democracy. That makes the 2021 elections the most important Scottish parliament vote ever. Put simply, the challenge to return a pro-independence majority of MSPs is the key to Scotland’s future.”
The First Minister had been planning to hold a second independence referendum this year and had written to Boris Johnson to ask for powers to have a legally binding vote.
But amid the crisis of the coronavirus her Constitutional Affairs Secretary Michael Russell announced to the Scottish Parliament this week that preparations for the vote this year had been called off.
Updating Holyrood on the development, Russell said coronavirus could only be defeated by working across the four nations of the UK. He also said that he had asked the UK Government to extend the one year Brexit transition period, due to end on 31 December 2021.
An extension would allow the UK to remain in alignment with EU regulations and freedom of movement laws for the given period.
Scottish Government officials have contacted the Electoral Commission to advise the watchdog that indyref preparations have been paused for the time being.
Asked about the selection process for SNP Holyrood candidates being put on hold Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s business convener, said: “All activity is under review, but our main focus at the moment is on people staying safe, and doing what we can both individually and collectively to constrain coronavirus in whatever way we can.”
Asked about whether the election would take place next year, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said there were currently no plans to postpone it. But pressed on the matter, she said it “stands to reason” things might be postponed, adding: “It is very uncertain times.”
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