May 5th and all that
The Scottish First Minister thinks it shows disrespect to the devolved administrations. His Welsh counterpart wants to discuss postponing the Welsh assembly elections in response. But our politicians, as ever, don't have a united position on the possibility that a referendum on changing the Westminster first past the post system will coincide with the Stormont and council elections on May 5th.
A Sinn Fein source thought it sounded like an efficient use of resources. But Alliance's General Secretary Gerry Lynch thinks that "any clash between referendum and the Assembly election will mean people do not get a chance to give adequate attention to either." Mr Lynch argues that "people need to think about what they want our political system to look like. Any referendum campaign must give the public the chance to make their minds up away from the heat of an Assembly election."
The electoral authorities appear to share those concerns. They are worried the voters could get confused and that holding two elections and a referendum at the same time would pose logistical problems. The date of the Assembly election is set in legislation but the date for the council elections will be for the Northern Ireland Office to decide.
The authorities reckon you need at least 8 weeks between elections. Pushing back the council elections would mean holding them in July which isn't a great time. So instead the idea is being canvassed of holding elections to the 26 councils early, on the first Thursday in March. That way you would also avoid party canvassers tripping over census enumerators who are due to be working the doors in late March.
The DUP don't seem to have a set view - one source told me they'd probably be opposed to holding all three votes on the same day. But within the last hour I spoke to a DUP minister who argued that the voters aren't stupid and could easily cope with a referendum and two elections on the same day. An Ulster Unionist spokesman told me that while it was "not perhaps ideal to hold a referendum on the same day as other elections, Northern Ireland has experience of multiple elections on the same day." The UUP spokesman pointed out that holding all three votes together "could also perhaps increase the prospects of a higher turnout for the referendum."
Either way it will be up to the Northern Ireland Office to decide and they aren't commenting until their counterparts across the water confirm the date of the Westminster AV referendum. That announcement is expected next week.
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