[This article may also be read on our Facebook page]
LABOUR’s plan to delay the Welsh Election for six months has been blasted as a cynical play for time.
It was announced yesterday that the Welsh Government are working on a bill that could allow the Llywydd to announce a delay to the election, scheduled for next May.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said this scenario had to be considered in view of the on-going coronavirus situation.
But Gwlad leader, Gwyn Wigley Evans said it was rather, another classic example of Welsh Labour looking after their own electoral interests above all else.
‘We all know that Labour is in a state of civil war right now, what with the ‘Corbyngate’ situation’ said Mr Evans.
‘The very last thing they want is a Welsh election with this open warfare between different Labour factions going on in the background’
‘By winter 2021, they hope this civil war will have quietened down. And as there is no election elsewhere by then, they can draft in their footsoldiers from England to help out here’.
He added that there was no justification to delay the election whatsoever, and that it could be challenged by means of a judicial review.
‘The contract of the last election was for 4 years, so the same government after next May would not be legal, and would lose all its authority’.
‘The people of Wales have the right to deliver their verdict on this government at the properly scheduled time’.
The 2021 Election was shaping up to be the most important election since 1999, with a much wider level of public engagement because of recent events.
It seems ridiculous to suggest that it would be too dangerous to hold an election in summer, where any circulating viruses are at their very weakest.
And even if the coronavirus is still around by then, the social distancing measures that have been part and parcel of our lives for the past 7 months, could just as easily be applied to an election process as well.
And if supermarkets and shops can be open, why on earth can’t polling stations, with their limited intake of people at any one time, be open?
With Prime Minister Boris Johnson ramping up his ‘union jack on every policy initiative’, it seems imperative for the Welsh national interest for this election to proceed, before Johnson’s idea gets any real momentum.
Let’s hope that Plaid realize this and desist for once from being ‘Labour’s little helpers’ on this issue.