NICOLA Sturgeon has hinted next year’s Holyrood election could be by postal vote.
The poll is due to take place in May, but the First Minister has warned the country could still be in lockdown, with rules repeatedly lifted and reinstated at short notice.
Amid fears an effective Covid-19 vaccine may not be available for 18 months, Sturgeon was asked how confident she was the election would take place.
The First Minister stressed she did not “have space in my head to think about politics or elections right now”, adding that any decision would have to be made on a cross-party basis.
She added: “My starting point is elections should go ahead, maybe there needs to be certain different ways of conducting the election, postal voting for example.
“It is not the thing that is uppermost in my mind right now, other than to say as far as possible, democracy of course, should continue because it is really important at times of crisis, that there is important democratic scrutiny and choice for people.”
It came after Labour MSP Daniel Johnson last week called for an all-mail ballot to be considered.
In a letter to Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh, he wrote:
“Elections normally require very significant social contact. Canvassing, street stalls, hustings events and the poll itself require people to meet and congregate.
“These are all part of the fabric of how we conduct elections and yet many if not all of these activities look problematic if not impossible in the context of social distancing."
He continued: “On the other hand, there are some aspects of our voting system that could be extended to provide for social distancing. Holding the ballot exclusively by post must surely be under consideration.”
Macintosh recently dismissed talk of a postponement as “fanciful’” and “speculative”, though he did not rule out a possible date change in the future.
The last poll in 2016 saw 726,555 postal votes were issued, accounting for 18 per cent of the 4.1 million electorate.
Nearly 77 per cent of postal votes were returned, according to watchdog the Electoral Commission.
