How to participate in the Scottish Election

With the Scottish Parliament election on May 6, 2021 fast approaching, we are here to give you a quick overview on how it works and how to decide who to support - Ocean Advocates Edition!

First, three key points:

1. If you live in Scotland, you can probably vote, regardless of citizenship! Anyone with "leave to enter or remain", currently living in Scotland, is eligible, even if you are a temporary resident, on a student visa, etc.

2. The deadline to register to vote is Apr 19! Follow this link to register: it will only take 5 minutes of your time.

3. The Scottish Parliament has significant powers, including powers over Scottish marine waters, and more broadly environmental and conservation policy. Voting usually only takes 15-20 minutes, but election results have huge implications for our environment.

If you are now convinced that you should participate, but are not up-to-date with Scottish politics, here is a very quick guide to get you started! After reading this post, you will have a good overview of how the election works and how to decide who to support.

How to vote in the election

If you are registered to vote in Scotland, you should receive a Poll card in the post, detailing your polling location on May 6th.

You can also check your polling locations, by inputting your postcode at https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/ and scrolling to the "Where to vote" section.

You can vote between 7am and 10pm on May 6. You do not need to bring any kind of identification: you will be asked for your name and address. Don't forget to wear a face covering! It is also currently recommended to bring your own pen or pencil. UK Government guide to voting here

In the Scottish Parliament election, you get to vote with two ballots, each for a different type of electoral district.

• Constituencies are small districts which elect one MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament). On the constituency ballot, you vote for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes win. There are currently 73 constituencies.

• Regions elect 7 MSPs using a proportional representation system. On the Region ballot, you can vote for one political party. Each region overlaps multiple constituencies, and the Regional seats are apportioned among parties after the Constituency results are in.

This system is referred to as an Additional Members System, and it is designed to elect local representatives (Constituency MSPs) while making sure smaller parties are also represented (Regional MSPs).

Political parties have rlee a manifesheir policies for the next Scottish Parliament.

The two ballots are independent of each other, so you can vote for a candidate from one party on the Constituency ballot and for a different party on the Regional ballot.

Image source: Ballot Box Scotland http://ballotbox.scot/scottish-parliament (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

You can read more about the electoral system here.

How to decide who to vote for

You can view a list of all all of the candidates/parties you can vote for at https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/ by entering your post code.

Political parties have released (or will soon release) manifestos with their policies for the next Scottish Parliament.

Here are links to the manifestos by major political parties, ordered by vote share in the last election:

Already released (as of 17 Apr 2021):

Scottish National Party: https://www.snp.org/manifesto/

Scottish Greens: https://greens.scot/ourfuture

Scottish Liberal Democrats: https://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/manifesto

Should be released soon:

Scottish Conservatives: https://www.scottishconservatives.com/policy/manifestos/

Scottish Labour: https://scottishlabour.org.uk/

Marine conservation highlights!

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the range of policies proposed by political parties and candidates. However, as a marine conservation-oriented group, we are presenting you with some marine policy highlights in already released manifestos (this is not an exhaustive list!):

Scottish National Party:

• Develop a maritime strategy and set up a dedicated agency to put our marine assets at the heart of the blue economy, doubling turnover, GVA and international trade in a decade. Support the sustainable growth of marine tourism to over £0.5 billion turnover by 2025.

• Fish farming: Reform and streamline regulatory processes so that development is more responsive, transparent and efficient.

Scottish Greens:

• Ensure at least 30% of our seas are protected, and a third of that area will be highly protected (fishing and other industries excluded)

• Ensure all Marine Protected Areas have a management plan that prevents damaging activities and encourages positive action.

• Support the marine protected area network through regional marine and coastal plans that are developed with local communities, sectoral interests and other stakeholders and are led by the twin aims of delivering our nature recovery targets and supporting sustainable economic activity.

• Prohibit new oil and gas developments and enforce the safe decommissioning of existing oil and gas installations.

• https://greens.scot/ourfuture/our-seas-and-coasts for more details.

Scottish Liberal Democrats:

• Designate new marine protected areas where this is backed by scientific evidence.

• Support research to demonstrate how Scotland’s marine area acts to capture carbon in the seabed and marine ecosystems.

• Work with the fishing industry, scientists and conservationists to manage inshore waters sustainably, and as locally as possible. Seek to end unsustainable fishing practices such as gill net trawling, and work to eliminate plastic pollution from our seas.

This blogpost may be updated are more manifestos are released.

Further resources

Ballot Box Scotland (polls, polling projections, electoral system explanations, election results…): http://ballotbox.scot/

Register To Vote: https://gov.uk/register-to-vote

Write To Them (website that makes it easy to write to your elected representatives): https://writetothem.com/

Who Can I Vote For (candidates at your location): https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/

Check out our blogpost on writing letters to your elected representatives! https://marine-conservation.wixsite.com/euoceanadvocates/post/letters-for-change

Why not email your MSP candidates asking them if they will support ScotLINK's Save Scottish Seas Campaign? https://www.scotlink.org/link-campaigns/save-scottish-seas/