3.The Act’s purpose is to make arrangements for the ordinary general election for the Scottish Parliament scheduled for 6 May 2021 which are considered necessary to mitigate the public health effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
4.In summary, the Act:
brings forward the deadline for postal vote applications and provides for a Ministerial report on uptake of postal voting;
gives a power to the Scottish Ministers to make regulations to provide for an all-postal election to be held;
makes the pre-election period of dissolution last only one day, in case the Parliament needs to meet to pass emergency legislation to delay the election;
allows the Scottish Ministers to make regulations to hold polling over multiple days;
makes provision about the first meeting of the new Parliament, the election of a new Presiding Officer and the appointment of a new First Minister;
gives a reserve power to the current Presiding Officer to postpone the 2021 election by up to 6 months in certain circumstances; and allows for the same measures as above to apply if the election is postponed.
5.The Act contains 16 sections under 8 italic headings. Commentary on the effect of individual sections follows below.