Holyrood elections 'should be pushed back to autumn'

SCOTTISH Parliament elections should be switched permanently from May to September, according to voting guru Professor John Curtice.

He claims a regular autumn polling date would make more sense than electing MSPs just a couple of months before the summer holidays.

When the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, elections were fixed for the first Thursday in May every four years. But the UK coalition government's plans to introduce five-year fixed-term parliaments at Westminster has sparked concern across the political spectrum about the clash it will produce in 2015, when the Holyrood and Westminster elections will fall on the same day.

To avoid confusion, the plan is to allow the Scottish Parliament to choose another date within six months either side of May 2015. But now Prof Curtice is suggesting Holyrood elections could move to September for good.

He said the current timetable meant politicians went off at the end of March to campaign for the elections at the start of May and by the time they were back in parliament it was only a few weeks until the recess.

He said: "Scotland goes on holiday in July and everyone is back by the middle of August so there is time for the campaign."

He pointed out the May date had been set by Westminster ahead of devolution, so there was no particular reason why MSPs should feel strongly about preserving it.

He said: "This presents an opportunity to think about what is the preferred date for Scottish Parliament elections.

"If you want to do something distinctively Scottish, holding the elections in the first half of September makes sense."

A Scottish Government spokesman said ministers were "content" with current arrangements and the case for a change "would have to be made".

He said it ought to be a matter for the Scottish Parliament to decide, not Westminster as at the moment.

Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes welcomed Prof Curtice's suggestion. He said: "There is no logical reason why the elections should have to be in May. People might not want to be campaigning too far into the autumn because of the weather, but September would be all right."

Edinburgh South Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Pringle said: "I have a lot of respect for John Curtice so if he is making this suggestion I think we should look at it."

SNP Livingston MSP Angela Constance said she had no strong feelings about when the election should be, so long as the date was fixed.

"I don't suppose most people will be too exercised."