I move amendments 5, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. These specify 26 August as the latest date until when an election can be delayed. As I said yesterday during Stage 2 proceedings, a six-month delay to the scheduled election on 6 May is too long. The National Assembly for Wales usually sat for four-year terms and the Senedd sits for five. A delay until bonfire night would take us halfway through a sixth year. There is no mandate from the people of Wales for that. Indeed, I—and I'm sure all Members I've spoken with at least—am receiving e-mails from concerned members of the public, anxious that their right to vote on 6 May might be taken away from them. I've not received a single e-mail from somebody supporting that concept. We know that the risks presented by coronavirus and its variants are highest in the winter months, and the annual risks to the NHS are greatest in the winter months. I can understand if there was a sharp rise in cases and the weekly incidence rate per 100,000 rose to the level we saw in December, for example, there would be a case for delaying the election until the summer. But surely we would not seek to delay it until the winter, when risks are greater, or introduce legislation enabling that to happen.

We accept the Minister's argument that our proposed amendment yesterday would have meant an election could have potentially clashed with the September school return, which is why we've instead proposed 26 August, although clearly the summer months of June or July would be preferable if there had to be any delay at all. Holding an election during a holiday period should not be an impediment to either the effective administration of the election or voter turnout. There is no practical merit in the arguments to the opposite, given the wider provisions within this Bill and existing wider provisions for alternative means of voting if required. The real issue is that voter turnout at devolved elections has always been low, and we have a collective responsibility to address that regardless. 

The position of the Welsh Conservatives is still clear: we want to see the scheduled election on 6 May go ahead, just as elections are taking place in other parts of the world during this pandemic, and are scheduled to continue doing so. If the election must be delayed because, for instance, we are in an alert level 4 lockdown, that delay should be as short as possible so that the people of Wales can elect a new Welsh Government of their choosing. I urge Members to support this accordingly.