Elections in Wales

Wales has elections to four tiers of government: 22 unitary local authorities, the National Assembly for Wales, the United Kingdom Parliament and the European Parliament.

Local government

There are elections to 22 unitary authorities across Wales every four years, most recently on 1 May 2012. The electoral system currently used is First Past The Post. Key unitary authorities are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea councils which all lie on the southern coastal belt.

Local election results 2012

Local election results 2008

Local election results 2004

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales has existed since 1999, after the Welsh voters narrowly approved it in the 1997 devolution referendum. It is based in Cardiff Bay, and there are elections every 5 years for 60 Assembly Members (AMs). Voters have 2 votes with 40 AMs being elected by First Past The Post system in individual constituencies, and a further 20 AMs are elected by the Regional Top-Up system in which voters have an extra vote for a specific region that they reside in. The regions are South Wales East, South Wales Central, South Wales West, Mid and West Wales and North Wales. Each region elects four AMs based on the proportionality of the vote.

Latest election

Past elections and referenda

UK Parliament

Wales has been eligible to send MPs to Westminster since the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Between then and 1885, most constituencies were divided into county and borough constituencies and were both able to send one MP to Westminster. As the industrial revolution took hold and calls for reform (particularly in towns such as Methyr Tydfil), Parliament eventually allowed the new towns to vote and this introduced the first Labour MPs. Indeed, the first leader of the Labour Party in Parliament, Keir Hardie, was one of the two MPs for Merthyr Tydfil. The following table shows the composition of Wales's MPs sent to Westminster since 1885.

Party Year	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat/ Liberal	Plaid Cymru	Independent	Liberal Unionist	Independent Labour	others
1885	4	-	29	-	-	-	-	1
1886	6	-	26	-	-	1	-	1
1892	3	-	30	-	-	-	-	1
1895	8	-	24	-	-	1	-	1
1900	6	1	26	-	-	1	-	1
1906	-	1	28	-	-	-	1	-
January 1910	2	5	27	-	-	-	-	-
December 1910	3	6	26	-	-	-	1	-
1918	4	10	19	-	-	-	-	20
1922	6	18	2	-	-	-	1	9
1923	4	19	11	-	-	-	-	2
1924	9	16	11	-	-	-	-	-
1929	1	25	10	-	-	-	-	-
1931	6	15	5	-	-	-	1	9
1935	6	18	8	-	-	-	-	4
1945	3	25	7	-	-	-	-	1
1950	3	27	5	-	-	-	-	1
1951	5	27	3	-	-	-	-	1
1955	5	27	3	-	-	-	-	1
1959	6	27	2	-	-	-	-	1
1964	6	28	2	-	-	-	-	-
1966	3	32	1	-	-	-	-	-
1970	7	27	1	-	-	-	1	-
February 1974	8	24	2	2	-	-	-	-
October 1974	8	23	2	3	-	-	-	-
1979	11	22	1	2	-	-	-	-
1983	14	20	2	2	-	-	-	-
1987	8	24	3	3	-	-	-	1
1992	6	27	1	4	-	-	-	-
1997	-	34	2	4	-	-	-	-
2001	-	34	2	4	-	-	-	1
2005	3	29	4	3	-	-	1	-
2010	8	26	3	3	-	-	0	-
2015	11	25	1	3	-	-	0	-

Detailed Breakdowns

2010

Party		Candidates	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	40	26	4	531,601	36.2	6.5
	Conservative	40	8	5	382,730	26.1	4.7
	Liberal Democrat	40	3	1	295,164	20.1	1.7
	Plaid Cymru	40	3	1	165,394	11.3	1.3
	UKIP	40	0	0	35,690	2.4	1.0
	BNP	19	0	0	23,088	1.6	1.5
	Independent		0	0	15,339	1.0
	Blaenau Gwent PV	1	0	1	6,458	0.4
	Green	10	0	0	6,293	0.4	0.1
	Christian		0	0	1,947	0.1
	Socialist Labour	4	0	0	1,155	0.0
	New Millennium Bean Party	1	0	0	558	0.0
	National Front	1	0	0	384	0.0
	Monster Raving Loony	2	0	0	352	0.0
	TUSC	2	0	0	341	0.0
	Communist	1	0	0	196	0.0
	Alliance for Green Socialism	1	0	0	127	0.0
Turnout:				1,446,690	64.9

2005

Party		Candidates	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour		29	5	594,821	42.7	5.9
	Conservative		3	3	297,830	21.4	0.4
	Liberal Democrat		4	2	256,249	18.4	4.6
	Plaid Cymru		3	1	174,838	12.6	1.7
	UKIP		0		20,297	1.5
	Green		0		7,144	0.5
	Forward Wales		0		3,461	0.2
	Legalise Cannabis		0		1,772	0.1
	BNP		0		1,689	0.1
	Socialist Labour		0		1,605	0.1
	Veritas		0		1,437	0.1
	Respect		0		643	0.0
	Liberal		0		605	0.0
	Socialist Alliance		0		557	0.0
	Communist		0		440	0.0
	Yourself		0		284	0.0
	Bean Party		0		159	0.0
	Independent		1	1	28,888	2.3
Turnout:				1,392,719	62.4

2001

Party		Candidates	Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	40	34		666,956	48.6	6.1
	Conservative	40	0		288,623	21.0	1.4
	Plaid Cymru	40	4		195,893	14.3	4.4
	Liberal Democrat		2		189,254	13.8	1.5
	UKIP		0		12,552	0.9
	Green		0		3,753	0.3
	Socialist Labour		0		2,805	0.2
	Socialist Alliance		0		2,258	0.2
	ProLife Alliance		0		1,609	0.1
	Communist		0		384	0.0
	BNP		0		278	0.0
	Others				7,959	0.6
Turnout:				1,372,324	61.6

European Parliament

Wales is a constituency in European Parliament elections.

See also

• Elections in the United Kingdom
• Elections in Scotland