Editing Dissolution of parliament (section)

=== Scottish Parliament ===
Under section 2 of the [[Scotland Act 1998]], as originally passed, ordinary general elections for the [[Scottish Parliament]] are held on the first Thursday in May every four years ([[Scottish parliamentary election, 1999|1999]], [[Scottish parliamentary election, 2003|2003]], [[Scottish Parliament election, 2007|2007]] etc.) The date of the poll may be varied by up to one month either way by the monarch on the proposal of the [[Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament|presiding officer]]. However, section 4 of the [[Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011]] postponed the general election that would have been held on 7 May 2015 to 5 May 2016 to avoid it coinciding with the UK general election fixed under that act.<ref>[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/14/section/4/enacted Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, section 4]</ref> By the [[Scottish Elections (Dates) Act 2016]], the following general election, scheduled for 7 May 2020, was postponed to 6 May 2021 for the same reason,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2016/13/enacted?view=plain |title=Scottish Elections (Dates) Act 2016 |work=legislation.gov.uk |access-date=7 May 2016 |archive-date=25 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025035903/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2016/13/enacted?view=plain |url-status=live }}</ref> although this became a moot point when a snap UK general election was held in [[2017 United Kingdom general election|June 2017]] (a further UK general election was held in [[2019 United Kingdom general election|December 2019]]). Eventually, under the [[Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020]], the "normal" term was extended to five years, which was ''de facto'' already the practice ([[Scottish parliamentary election, 2011|2011]], [[Scottish parliamentary election, 2016|2016]], [[Scottish Parliament election, 2021|2021]] etc.).

Under section 3 of the Scotland Act 1998, if the parliament itself resolves that it should be dissolved (with at least two-thirds of the members voting in favour), or if the parliament fails to nominate one of its members to be [[First Minister of Scotland|first minister]] within certain time limits, the presiding officer proposes a date for an extraordinary general election and the parliament is dissolved by the monarch by [[royal proclamation]].