Students to target BNP in Scottish elections

Published on Wednesday 28 August 2002 01:00

STUDENT leaders, alarmed by the success of far right parties in France and the Netherlands, are starting a campaign to marginalise the British National Party in next year’s Scottish council and parliamentary elections.

Highlighting the low turnout in French elections earlier this year, which gave a massive boost to National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Union of Students (NUS) Scotland will urge students - accused, like many young people, of political apathy in recent years - to register to vote.

NUS leaders will also call on candidates to refuse to share a platform or discussion programme on radio or TV with the BNP. Rami Okasha, the president of NUS Scotland, stressed his union did not want to ban the BNP. "They have a right to exist, but we suggest other candidates should not appear with them as it gives them a credibility which they don’t deserve."

Calling for a large turn-out at polling booths, he added: "It’s a real worry what has happened in France and the Netherlands. We will be running a big voter campaign as people have to vote to stop extremists."

Phill Edwards, a spokesman for the BNP, said they had not yet taken a decision on how many candidates to field north of the Border in May. In this year’s council elections in England, they contested 1 per cent of the 6,000 wards, winning three, all in Burnley, Lancashire.

Andrew Wilson, the SNP’s spokesman on lifelong learning, backed the NUS campaign, saying: "While we need to be careful not to draw attention to BNP members, we also need to be vigilant, to do what we can to expose them. This is a nasty and anti-democratic organisation."

Mr Okasha revealed that NUS Scotland will also be running a related campaign, along with the STUC, the Electoral Reform Society and the Scottish Youth Parliament, calling for the age at which people can vote to be lowered to 16.

This measure could stimulate more young people to take an interest in civic and political life, he said. He added: "It is bizarre that young people can marry and go to war at 16 but they don’t have the vote."