THE SNP is to reward the wider Yes Scotland movement for its efforts in the referendum campaign by allowing the fast-tracking of activists to be party candidates at next year's General Election.
The ground-breaking plan paves the way for SNP constituencies to approve non-party members to stand as MPs under a different banner, such as Yes for Scotland, in May's poll.
It was proposed today at the SNP conference in Perth, where outgoing First Minister Alex Salmond will also today tell delegates that the fight for independence goes on despite September's defeat.
In his farewell speech as leader, Mr Salmond is to challenge the party to step up even further its recruitment drive to reach 100,000 members by the time of the election. Membership has already risen from fewer than 26,000 in September to nearly 85,000.
He will tell the event that while 45 per cent of voters backed separating from the UK, they should "proclaim what each of us knows with a greater certainty than ever before - Scotland will become an independent nation".
In addition to waiving the normal rules for party candidacy, the conference is looking to end the restriction on new members voting for candidate selection.
The SNP has resisted calls from the Greens and Scottish Socialists for a pro-independence pact next year, but the radical plan put forward by the Nationalists will ensure that local constituencies retain ultimate control.
Party insiders believe that as well as making it more straightforward for more recent SNP recruits to stand for Westminster, the conference resolution, if passed, would open up the potential for pro-independence campaigners who are not party members to stand under the SNP banner.
They would need to be approved for inclusion on the candidates register and selected by a local constituency.
While the party description would be SNP, there would be scope to have other words to describe such a candidate.
A senior party source said: "The SNP have the wind in our sails, both in terms of poll ratings and membership, and this step would enable us to harness the strength and diversity of the Yes campaign in the 2015 General Election."
Nicola Sturgeon, who today takes over as SNP leader and next week will become Scotland's first female first minister, said the party was "open to exploring the possibility".
Ms Sturgeon said: "We want to open up potentially our candidates list for Westminster firstly to people who've recently joined the SNP but in the normal course of things wouldn't satisfy our membership criteria to be a candidate. Normally you have to be a member of the SNP for several months before you can be a candidate.
"We've got tens of thousands of new members with skills, with talents, with something big to contribute. I want to give them the opportunity of being an SNP candidate."
But she also said: "I think it does open the potential for people who were Yes campaigners who may not be members of the SNP to share a platform with the SNP so we're open to exploring that."
That could mean people such as Jeane Freeman - a former adviser to Labour first minister Jack McConnell who was part of the Women for Independence campaign - could stand for election, Ms Sturgeon said.
"Jeane Freeman would be a good example of the kind of person I'm speaking about," she said.
But she stressed SNP constituency branches would need to back having a non-member as a candidate.
Ms Sturgeon said: "This is about the choice that SNP constituencies might be given to choose their candidates."
She formally moved the propoosal today and, supported by Westminster leader Angus Robertson, it was passed without any opposition by conference.
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