Fair and free elections are the foundation of any healthy democracy, and it's about time that the people of Wales had an opportunity to give an injection of energy to this Senedd and to elect a new Government after a five-year term, which is already lengthy in comparative terms—too long in my view, but we're not here to discuss that today. It's not lightly that this Senedd is asked to consent to the Government introducing a piece of legislation that would allow the delaying of the election, therefore. In discussing the report of the elections planning group back in November, Adam Price said that

'it's difficult to anticipate a situation where Senedd elections would have to be postponed.'

However, the experience of the past few months has shown us that we can take nothing for granted, and that is so very true. Since then, a new variant of the virus has been discovered, we're back in a strict lockdown, and whilst the vaccination efforts do provide some hope, there is some way to go. And although we do truly want this election to be held on 6 May, all of a sudden 6 May feels very close. We do support the Government's request of the Senedd to treat this Bill under the emergency procedure, but not unconditionally. Despite the tight timetable, it's important that scrutiny of the Bill is robust and comprehensive. We need the draft legislation to be published as soon as possible. The Member in charge of the Bill has already reached out to opposition parties. We expect that to continue, and with the Senedd Commission too, in order to fully recognise the fact that this is not a normal Bill by any means, and that everything needs to be done to safeguard the integrity of the democratic process. Public health and the health of our democracy is at the front of our minds as a party, as is the case with every other party, hopefully.

I noted that the Government's statement attached to this motion states that the pandemic represents two risks to the integrity of the election: one in the ability of constituents to participate in the election; the second for administrators to actually hold the election. I think there is a third major risk too. It's not the 6 May date that's important but the period leading up to that, that period of engaging with the people of Wales. We're talking about electing a national Government here that will guide us as a nation through the post-pandemic period, and we need to have that full public debate. Apart from the fact that the election, I suppose, is the last thing on the minds of many people—many are ill, many are suffering economically, many will have lost loved ones even—there are also practical considerations emerging from the democratic deficit, the weakness of the press in Wales and the inability, even, to distribute leaflets about the election, which is very important in Welsh elections because of that deficit in the media.

We need clarity on that final point. In response to a written question from Siân Gwenllian, the First Minister stated that distributing election leaflets was unlawful under the level 4 restrictions. I heard somebody mention that, 'You can share as many pizza pamphlets as you like but no pamphlets relating to a democratic process that is so very important.' On the other hand, one of the Welsh police forces has said that it should be allowed, because distributing leaflets is work that cannot be done from home. So, we need clarity on those issues. I understand that nations that have held elections during the pandemic, such as the United States, have even allowed some door-to-door campaigning. So, we need to know exactly what could be allowed.

Now, whilst social media is an option, not everyone makes use of social media, and it's very important to bear that in mind. The royal mail is very expensive. In Arfon at the moment I think people have been without a postal service because of the impact of COVID on the postal workforce. And in terms of the cost, the Chartists were in the vanguard at one time in their call to make elections free in all aspects, not just for the wealthy. So, despite the understandable restrictions as a result of the pandemic, we must safeguard that principle too.

Now, in conclusion, and staying with the theme of the fairness and integrity of the election, there is an inherent fairness, one could argue, in the dissolution period in order to safeguard public funds from being misused and not favouring some candidates over the other. We will scrutinise that proposal to reduce the dissolution period from 21 days to seven, given the implications to purdah, civil service arrangements, broadcast arrangements and so on, but most importantly in terms of getting a grip on the spread of the virus. The worst thing possible would be a Government and a Senedd dealing with the worst wave of the pandemic whilst in the midst of an election campaign. As I said, it's about time we had an election. It should be on 6 May. Our aspiration would be that it should be held then, but, of course, this virus has proved over the past year that it is a master of us all—