The first election for Scotland's new devolved parliament will take place in 500 days' time, on May 6, 1999, the Government has announced.

The historic vote will be the first time that proportional representation will be used for an election on the British mainland.

It will be combined with the Scottish local government elections scheduled for the same day, in a bid to ensure a high turnout of voters.

The Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar said: "We promised in the White Paper that Scotland would be able to vote for its new Parliament in the first half of 1999. "Scottish voters face going to the polls three times in the first half of 1999 to elect Members of the new Scottish Parliament, local councillors and Members of the European Parliament.

"Each of these elections are important in their own right, but I think there are practical advantages in combining two of the polls to ease the burden on the electorate."

Mr Dewar said holding the poll on the same date as the council elections should lead to a higher turnout and help achieve the aim of "stimulating democratic renewal" at all levels of Scottish politics.

The Government, he said, would discuss the arrangements with the local government umbrella group COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) to ensure the elections ran as smoothly as possible.

New ways of voting

Voters will have two votes to select the 129 MSPs - Members of Scottish Parliament - under a complex electoral system.

The first will be for a conventional first-past-the-post constituency MP, and the second will be for a "regional" member, elected by the additional member system form of proportional representation.

For this second category, parties will submit lists of up to 12 candidates each for a geographic area based on the European Parliament constituencies. A total of 56 such "additional" members will be elected, on a basis which will take account of the seats already gained in the first-past-the-post ballot.

Earlier this week, when the Scotland Bill was published, it emerged that individuals will also be able to put their names down for this list. But other details, such as the threshold for candidates losing their deposits, were still being worked out.

The location for the new parliament - Scotland's first in 300 years - in Edinburgh, will be chosen from a shortlist of four possible sites. The Parliament will be up and running by 2000.
 

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