THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM FOR THE ASSEMBLY

The mechanism for election of members of the Assembly will be as follows.

Each person will have two votes, one for a constituency MP and one for a party list.

Constituency Members

40 will be elected from the Welsh Westminster constituencies by the present first past the post system.
That is each constituency returns one Assembly member, who is the person with the highest number of votes regardless of whether they get a majority of the votes cast or not.

Filling Vacancies
In the event of the death, resignation, or disqualification of an Assembly member from a constituency seat a by-election would be held for the vacancy. It would be run in exactly the same way as a normal election outlined above.

List System Members

20 to be elected from party lists, four members from each of the five Assembly electoral regions. The electoral regions are co-terminus with the present five European Constituencies.

The list system will work as follows. The elector will cast their vote for a named party, the ballot paper will also display the names of the party nominees and any independents. People will vote by putting a cross against the name of the political party.

The list members will be awarded in such a way as to make the result from that region (list members and constituency members) as proportional as possible.

This is done by dividing the number of votes cast by electors for each party on the regional list by the number of constituency seats in that region won by that party plus one. The party with the largest remainder gets the first list seat. The process is then repeated (using the list votes divided by the number of seats now held plus one) until all four list seats are awarded.

To illustrate this take the result of the last general election (1997) taken over the North Wales Euro constituency. In reality the votes for each party's list may well be different to the aggregate vote of the parties in the first past the post constituencies as people may vote for a candidate that they like in a constituency while voting for their preferred party in the party lists.

In this election the votes (expressed as percentages) were:

  Labour Conservative Plaid Cymru Liberal Democrat Other AM Result
Constituency Seats 7   2    
Party Vote 45.60 24.83 14.45 12.05 3.38
1st AM ÷ 8 = 5.70 ÷ 1 = 24.83 ÷ 3 = 4.82 ÷ 1 = 12.05 ÷ 1 = 3.38 Con win
2nd AM ÷ 8 = 5.70 ÷ 2 = 12.42 ÷ 3 = 4.82 ÷ 1 = 12.05 ÷ 1 = 3.38 Con win
3rd AM ÷ 8 = 5.70 ÷ 3 = 8.28 ÷ 3 = 4.82 ÷ 1 = 12.05 ÷ 1 = 3.38 Lib Dem win
4th AM ÷ 8 = 5.70 ÷ 3 = 8.28 ÷ 3 = 4.82 ÷ 2 = 6.03 ÷ 1 = 3.38 Con win

Thus the total seats for the North Wales region would be:

Party Percentage of Vote Assembly Constituency Seats List Seats Total Assembly Seats
Labour 45.60 7 0 7
Conservative 24.83 0 3 3
Plaid Cymru 14.45 2 0 2
Liberal Democrat 12.05 0 1 1
Others 3.38 0 0 0

Filling Vacancies
In the event of the death, resignation, or disqualification of an Assembly member from a list seat then the next available candidate from that party list would be declared elected to the vacancy.

The Constituencies are:

Constituency Map
Electoral Region North Wales
Number Westminster Constituency
1 Ynys Mon
2 Caernarfon
3 Conwy
4 Clwyd West
5 Clwyd South
6 Vale of Clwyd
7 Delyn
8 Alyn and Deeside
9 Wrexham
Electoral Region Mid And West Wales
Number Westminster Constituency
10 Meirionnydd Nant Conwy
11 Montgomery
12 Ceredigion
13 Brecknock and Radnorshire
14 Preseli Pembrokshire
15 Carmarthen West and South Pembrokshire
16 Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
17 Llanelli

Electoral Region South Wales West Electoral Region South Wales Central
Number Westminster Constituency Number Westminster Constituency
18 Gower 25 Cynon Valley
19 Neath 26 Rhondda
20 Aberavon 27 Pontypridd
21 Swansea East 28 Vale of Glamorgan
22 Swansea West 29 Cardiff West
23 Ogmore 30 Cardiff South and Penarth
24 Bridgend 31 Cardiff Central
    32 Cardiff North

Electoral Region South Wales East
Number Westminster Constituency
33 Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney
34 Caerphilly
35 Blaenau Gwent
36 Islwyn
37 Torfaen
38 Newport East
39 Newport West
40 Monmouth

© Lyn David Thomas 1998

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