By paNOW Staff

Provincial and municipal election dates revised

Oct 31, 2018 | 2:50 PM

The Saskatchewan government has announced new dates for upcoming provincial, municipal and school board elections.

The province announced Wednesday afternoon 2020 election dates will be adjusted slightly to include more time between the two dates. Without the change, the 2020 provincial election would be have been held five days after municipal and school board elections. The next Saskatchewan provincial election is now scheduled to be held Oct. 26, 2020. 

Municipal and school board votes are scheduled for two weeks later, on Nov. 9, 2020. 

The province has also updated legislation so that the next election, after the 2020 vote, will be held on the last Monday in October. Future municipal elections will take place the second Wednesday of November, unless it falls on Remembrance Day. 

“After consulting extensively with both rural and urban municipalities, it was clear they wanted to keep their elections in the fall of 2020,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in a release.  “We believe we have reached a reasonable compromise that will allow local officials time to prepare for these changes.”

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Moe said municipal and provincial elections were scheduled similarily in the past, including in 1991 and 2003. However, he said holding a provincial election into November would make it impossible to start a new legislative session before Christmas, so the dates were flipped for 2020. 

“Fall provincial elections make sense because they don’t disrupt the legislative calendar,” Moe added. “The government can still introduce the Throne Speech in the fall and a budget at the usual time in the spring.”

Before the 2016 provincial election, the previous four elections were held in the fall. The 2016 election was in April, due to a fall 2015 federal election, which delayed the provincial budget until June.

panews@jpbg.ca

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