Elections in Wales

There are four types of elections in Wales: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to the devolved Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Senedd Cymru), local elections to the 22 principal areas, and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, in addition to by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for UK general elections, all four types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to the UK parliament can occur in certain situations, with Senedd elections being postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other. The three electoral systems used for elections in Wales are: first-past-the-post (for UK elections and local elections, though individual local authorities are able to move to STV under recent Welsh legislation), the additional member system (for Senedd elections) and the supplementary vote (for Police and Crime Commissioner elections; although proposals by the UK Government to change PCC elections to FPTP have been made). There are elections to 22 unitary authorities across Wales every four years, most recently on 5 May 2022. The electoral system used is first-past-the-post. The largest unitary authorities in Wales are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea councils, which all lie in the southern coastal belt. The next Welsh local elections are scheduled for 2027 Local election results 2022 Local election results 2017 Local election results 2012 Local election results 2008 Local election results 2004 Local election results 1999 Local election results 1995 Local election results 1993 Police and crime commissioner Police and crime commissioners were established in England and Wales, replacing the local police authorities, following the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement of 2010, with the first Police and crime commissioners elected in 2012.