How are Members of the Senedd are elected?

Published 19/11/2020   |   Last Updated 11/03/2021   |   Reading Time minutes

There are 60 Members in the Senedd - 40 of them are constituency Members, representing the same local constituencies as Westminster MPs. The other 20 are regional Members, who represent one of the five regions of Wales.

You are represented in the Senedd by five Members. One for your constituency and four for the region of Wales you live in.

All regional and constituency Members have equal status in the Senedd. Meaning that the interests of all of Wales’s regions and constituencies are equally represented.

Constituency Members

The 40 constituency Members are elected by the first-past-the-post system. The candidate with most votes is then elected.

Regional Members

The five regions are: North Wales, Mid and West Wales, South Wales West, South Wales Central, South Wales East. Each has four seats.

The 20 regional Members are elected using the Additional Member System. The Additional Member System helps the final make-up of the Senedd better reflect the support for each party across the country.

How does the regional system work?

Here's how the regional system works:

  • each party or group in a region presents a list of candidates;
  • electors vote for the person they want to represent their region;
  • the votes for the regions are usually counted after the constituency votes have been decided;
  • each party’s total is divided by 1 + the number of Members of the Senedd it already has in that region;
  • the party with the highest total after this calculation gets the next seat and the person on top of its list is elected;
  • the same pattern is repeated until all four regional seats have been decided.

 


Election results

Explore the results from Senedd elections and by-elections.

See election results