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2007 National Assembly for Wales election

The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the Scottish Parliament election took place. This election was preceded by the previous Assembly election in 2003.

The election saw Plaid Cymru make gains at the expense of Labour, although Labour remain the largest party in the Assembly, as they have since it began. Plaid stated they would make a referendum on devolving further powers to the National Assembly a condition for a coalition.[1] Wales reported that senior civil servants before the election were preparing for three possible coalition administrations: Labour/Liberal Democrat, Labour/Plaid Cymru or Plaid Cymru/Liberal Democrat/Conservative.

Discussions between Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to form a "Rainbow" Coalition broke down, and a coalition was eventually agreed between Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Major parties

The Welsh Labour Party before the election had 29 seats, Plaid Cymru had 12, the Welsh Conservative Party 11, the Welsh Liberal Democrats 6, Forward Wales 1, with 1 independent, Trish Law. Law had won her seat at a 2006 by-election. The one Forward Wales Assembly Member was elected as an independent before forming the party. The standings were otherwise identical to the 2003 results.

Electoral method

In general elections for the National Assembly for Wales, each voter has two votes in a mixed member system. The first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Assembly Member for the voter's constituency, elected by the first past the post system. The second vote may be used to vote for a regional closed party list of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation. The overall result is approximately proportional.

Pre-election forecasts

Predictions for the seat distribution were made by a number of polls before the election:

Electoral results

(source:[5])

Votes summary

Constituency nominations

NB: candidates in BOLD text were incumbent assembly members before the election

Regional lists

[9]

Mid and West Wales

North Wales

South Wales Central

South Wales East

South Wales West

In South Wales West, there were also party lists from the Communist Party of Britain, Christian Peoples Alliance, Respect Party, Socialist Labour Party, Welsh Christian Party in addition to two independents, Keith James and John Hudson Jenkins.

New members

Thirteen of the members elected to the Assembly in the election were not members of the previous Assembly, including Gareth Jones, who sat in the Assembly from 1999 to 2003 and lost his seat in that year's election.

Defeated members

Nine sitting AMs were defeated at the polls.

Retiring members

Four sitting AMs did not offer themselves for re-election.

National election, 2003

Due to boundary changes, the composition of the outgoing Assembly did not reflect the Assembly that was elected in May 2003 (see National Assembly for Wales constituencies and electoral regions). The main changes were in northwestern Wales, where the constituencies of Conwy, Caernarfon, and Meirionydd nant Conwy were replaced by Aberconwy, Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Plaid to seek devolution referendum after election, Wales, 3 January 2007, accessed on 8 February 2007.
  2. ^ Labour set to lose out in May's WAG vote, icWales, 2007-01-13, accessed on 2007-01-17.
  3. ^ Martin Shipton (6 April 2007). "First poll thunders warning for Rhodri". walesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  4. ^ Shipton, Martin (5 April 2007). "First poll thunders warning for Rhodri". walesonline.
  5. ^ "BBC NEWS | Election 2007 | Welsh Assembly | Election Result: Wales". BBC News.
  6. ^ Davies to contest assembly seat, BBC News, 5 February 2007, accessed 8 February 2007.
  7. ^ a b "English Democrats Party:: News blog". Archived from the original on 10 May 2007.
  8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ "National Assembly for Wales Election Results 2007-". election.demon.co.uk.
  10. ^ "First ethnic minority AM elected". BBC News. 4 May 2007.
  11. ^ "Plaid AM defects to Conservatives". BBC News. 8 December 2009.

External links