THE Scottish Parliament election next year should go ahead but could have to be run entirely via postal voting, the First Minister has said.

Nicola Sturgeon told the daily media briefing yesterday that “democracy and democratic scrutiny” should continue but the election may have to be conducted “in a different way”. She said the decision about any possible changes to the poll would be taken by the Scottish Government in consultation with opposition political parties.

“I don’t want to spend much time thinking of the Holyrood election right now, forgive me,” she said in response to the question from The National.

“I don’t have space in my head to think about politics or elections and I don’t think the public would thank me for doing so.”

She added: “Clearly these decisions, if they have to be taken, about an election has to be a decision by the Government but also in consultation with other parties ... My starting point is that the election should go ahead.

“It may be that there needs to be certain different ways of conducting the election, postal voting, but the election is still quite a long way away. And I don’t think we should get to that point before we need to.”

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She continued: “It is a legitimate question, I’m not saying it isn’t. But it is not the thing that is uppermost in my mind right now, other than to say that of course democracy should continue. It is very important at times of crisis that [there is] democratic scrutiny and choice for people.

“There is a whole host of decisions that may have to be taken at some point. We need to get to these bridges before we work out how to cross them.”

Last month The National revealed the SNP put on hold the process of selecting their candidates for May next year in situations when an SNP MSP is standing down or where a constituency is held by an opposition party. No date has yet been set for when the process will resume.

“People around Holyrood are talking about the parliament being extended and the election being suspended next year,” one senior SNP figure told The National ahead of the lockdown. “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.”

It is not clear whether ministers could bring in measures allowing for the election to be held via postal votes or if it would require an act of parliament.Turn out among postal voters is generally high – total overall turnout in 2016 Holyrood election was 55.9 % , with the turnout of postal voters at 76.6%. It is not known if the turnout would be so high if it was an all-postal election.