Holyrood 2021: GOAV

Get Out And Vote (GOAV) is looming large for all at MEND at this time. With all making plans and strategies on how best to ensure that the community is interacting with the political sphere and politicians are engaging with the Muslim Community.

This same is taking place North of the border in Scotland as we work tirelessly to prepare for the Scottish Holyrood Elections 2021 with a plethora of activity.

So, what have we been doing? At the time of writing, we have reached out to candidates from all main political parties across the three main areas we are focusing our attention on. These are Edinburgh (Scotland’s capital), Falkirk and Glasgow.

So far, we have held meetings with all major political parties in Scotland policy teams to discuss our policy pledges. These have all gone very well with most parties looking favourably on many of our policies. We shall await further input from all parties to see which ones have been integrated into Political Parties manifestos.

We have also started the process of meeting with hustings teams to discuss holding both regional and national level hustings. For regional, we look to have representatives from local areas to discuss not just MEND policy pledges but also issues that are relevant to the local community. For national hustings, we are looking to hold a one-off nation-wide husting with all party leaders. Here we will take an in-depth look at policy pledges and how each party looks to best support the Muslim community as a whole. For all hustings, we look to work with partner organisations to ensure that the Muslim community is represented it is fullest.

Over and above this we have been meeting with Holyrood 2021 candidates from all parties to discuss the policy pledges and gain support. This we will continue to do as we move closer to the elections.

Stay tuned for all hustings details and how you can get involved.