NICOLA Sturgeon insists that Scots service personnel serving outside Scotland will have a chance to vote in the independence referendum, after the bill extending the vote to 16-year-olds appeared to neglect the military.
The Deputy First Minister blamed "misinformation" after the Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Bill was lodged at Holyrood last week for the suggestion that personnel who wanted to vote in 2014 might be unfairly excluded.
Because the new bill has no special arrangements for service personnel such as the new register for young voters, it was claimed those temporarily registered outside Scotland would be denied their say. A former army captain described it as a "betrayal", while Labour shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said it was unacceptable that "servicemen and women posted outside of Scotland are being overlooked" while 16-year-olds get the vote.
But in a statement to the Sunday Herald, Sturgeon said: "Service personnel (and their spouses or civil partners) who are registered in Scotland but who are serving overseas or elsewhere in the UK will be entitled to vote in the 2014 referendum.
Meanwhile, the Yes Scotland campaign has added 16-year-old Ellie Koepplinger from Glasgow to its advisory board
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