The Senedd 2021 election was conducted on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 participants of the Senedd Cumru, the parliament of Wales. This was the 6th general election since Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for Wales) was founded in 1999. Elections were conducted together with local elections in the UK, London Assembly elections and Scottish parliamentary elections.
It was the first election in which 16-17 year olds and legally resident foreign nationals were allowed to vote in Wales, the largest expansion of suffrage in Wales since 1969. Both changes are the result of the Senedd and Election (Wales) Act 2020.
Five parties have had Senedd Members (formerly Assembly Members – ABM) chosen in prior elections: Welsh Labor, the Welsh Conservatives, the Wales Party, the British Independence Party (UKIP), and the Welsh Liberal Democrats. Seven political parties are currently present in Senedd. These are the five above mentioned parties and two parties that obtained deputies who were elected from other political parties and left them. The Party for the Abolition of the Welsh Assembly won two MPs who were elected to UKIP in 2016, and Propel (formerly the Welsh Nation Party) received MPs who were elected to Plaid Cumru in 2016.
In a Senedd election using the additional participant system, each voter has two votes. The first vote is for the first elected participant of the election division to undergo the postal system. The second vote is for the regional closed party list of candidates. Additional membership places are allocated from the lists according to the D’Hondt method, taking into account the results of the electoral district during the distribution. The overall result is roughly proportional.
Under the Wales Act 2014, a candidate is allowed to run in both the election division and the local list. However, having a dual mandate with the House of Commons is illegal, which means that a participant of Senedd cannot also be a deputy.
This was the first election in which young people aged 16 and 17 could vote since the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act came into force in January 2020.
The deadline for voter registration for this election is 11:59 pm on April 19, 2021.
Category: General