THE electoral watchdog has deferred a decision about whether to test the referendum question ‘should Scotland be an independent country’ at its board meeting today.
Members of the Electoral Commission for Scotland have delayed the matter possibly until their meeting next month in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The body held its board meeting for the first time via video conferencing in light of social distancing public health advice.
A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission for Scotland told The National: “The discussions of the Electoral Commission board at its meeting today necessarily focused on the Commission’s response to the impact of Covid-19 on its work, stakeholders and staff.
“Other items for discussion, including the Scottish Government’s request to re-test the 2014 Scottish independence referendum question, were deferred for Board discussion at the next earliest opportunity.”
The First Minister announced in January that she was asking the Electoral Commission to formally "re-test" the question "should Scotland be an independent country?"
Earlier this month Tory Cabinet minister Michael Gove was accused of bullying after he wrote to the Commission’s chairman Sir John Holmes saying a request by the First Minister to review the question for a new independence referendum is a “a poor use of time”.
Hitting back, Michael Russell, the Scottish Government’s Constitutional Affairs Secretary, tweeted: “It is a ‘poor use of time’ for a U.K. Government Minister to try to interfere with & bully an independent statutory body.
“Given the disaster that is #Brexit Gove should be giving all his attention to mitigating its effect on businesses & England’s failing public services.”
But Gove dismissed the move as an attempt to convince SNP members that a indyref2 is “imminent”.
In his letter to the Electoral Commission chairman, the Cabinet Office Minister wrote: "The Electoral Commission of course has an important role in testing the suitability of referendum questions where there is a referendum in prospect.”
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