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Wales

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Wales

Contemporary Welsh Law English Law Courts of England and Wales National Assembly for Wales Assembly Measures Statutory Instruments Presiding Officer: Dafydd Elis-Thomas Members (AMs) Constituencies and electoral regions Last general election, 2003 Next general election, 2007 Welsh Assembly Government First Minister: Rhodri Morgan Wales in the UK Parliament: Welsh Office Secretary of State: Peter Hain Constituencies Acts Last general election, 2005 Next general election, 2009/10 European Parliament European Parliament constituency Last Election, 2004 Next election, 2009 Administrative divisions of Wales Elections Political parties

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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.

Contents 1 Local Government 2 National Assembly for Wales 3 UK Parliament 4 European Parliament 5 See also

There are elections to 22 unitary authorities across Wales every four years, and the next are scheduled for 2008. The electoral system currently used is First Past The Post, however there have been calls to follow Scotland into introducing the Single Transferable Vote for local elections. Key unitary authorities are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea councils which all lie on the southern coastal belt.

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 4 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.

The next Assembly elections are due to be held in May 2007.

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	-

Wales is a constituency in European Parliament elections.

• Elections in the United Kingdom
• Elections in Scotland