If you ever wanted a horrific blueprint for what liberals want to bring to America, here it is.
Refugees can now vote in Scotland. Which means the country is toast.
Thousands of refugees living in Scotland have just won the right to vote in the country’s national and local elections. It’s a historic step and one that recognises political involvement as a key part of social integration.
The Scottish Parliament has passed a bill extending the right to vote to all foreign nationals with permanent residency, including those granted refugee status. They can now vote in local elections as well as the national Scottish Parliament (in the U.K., Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland hold some amount of autonomy through devolved legislatures, not too dissimilar from federalism in the U.S.). They will also be able to stand for election themselves.
This brings Scotland into a very small club of countries allowing refugees the vote. Only a handful of countries, many in Scandinavia, allow foreign nationals to vote at all, and most of those only after they have resided in the country at least three years. Scottish Cabinet Secretary Michael Russell said “This Bill (…) reflects the reality of modern Scotland: a nation committed to robustly meeting our duties to the treaties that safeguard our human rights, that welcomes those who seek to join our society, and gives a democratic voice to the most marginalised in our communities.”
Since 2018, when the Scottish government began consultation on reforming its electoral system, a coalition of groups led by the Scottish Refugee Council was lobbying for this bill.
“We wholeheartedly welcome the provisions in the Bill to both expand the electoral franchise and candidacy rights,” says Lorna Gledhill, Policy Officer at the Scottish Refugee Council. “By granting voting rights to all those who are lawfully resident in Scotland, and extending candidacy rights to those with indefinite leave to remain, MSPs are sending a clear message that Scotland is a welcoming, inclusive country, where everyone is treated equally no matter where they are from.
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