A FORTNIGHT can be a long time in politics, as the fledgling Action for Independence (AFI) party has discovered after the Electoral Commission (EC) confirmed that the concept of alliances between political parties is acceptable, and they were dealing with the party’s application “as a priority”.
The National told at the beginning of this month how, after 62 days and counting, the EC had taken twice their average time to process AFI’s registration.
Party leaders first tried to register last October as the Alliance for Independence, but the EC ordered them to change the name because the word “alliance” could mislead voters.
So, AFI was reborn as Action for Independence with a plan to maximise the Yes vote on the list at the Holyrood election in May, by urging people to vote SNP1, AFI2.
Keen to close in on the indy “supermajority” in their sights, they had to put all their plans on hold because the EC was taking so long to register the new party.
However, last night AFI’s interim leader and former SNP MSP Dave Thompson, told the Sunday National the commission was now treating their application as a priority, after confirming to him in an email: “As you are aware, it is possible for multiple parties to have informal and formal alliances. Please be assured that we are dealing with your application as a priority.”
He said that following clarification of some points in AFI’s constitution, the EC was now concluding its final consideration of the application to register as a political party, and would get back to them as speedily as possible.
“Having supplied the EC with further clarification of our constitution on Friday we are now looking for confirmation of registration in the next week or so,” said Thompson.
“As soon as this comes through we will be launching a membership drive and hope to have everything up and running very quickly.”
Political insiders are closely watching the new party, and Thompson said they were ready to welcome other pro-indy groups: “Registration of AFI will pave the way for the full launch of our Max The Yes campaign and we shall be open to working with all who wish to unite for the good of Scotland as we move rapidly towards the independence elections in May. We urge all of the smaller independence supporting parties planning to stand on the regional lists to unite with us to achieve a supermajority in the next Scottish Parliament.”
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