Elections in Wales

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This article is part of a series within the Politics of the United Kingdom on the
Politics of Wales
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Elections and referendums Senedd elections 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 2021 Next United Kingdom Parliament elections 1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 2024 European Parliament elections (1979–2020) 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 Local elections 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1999 2004 2008 2012 2017 2022 Police and crime commissioner elections 2012 2016 2021 Referendums 1975 1979 1997 2011 2011 2016 1915–16 Anglican border polls 2004 Ceredigion mayoral Senedd constituencies and electoral regions UK parliamentary constituencies in Wales Political parties Represented in the Senedd (Labour Conservatives Plaid Cymru Liberal Democrats) Think tanks
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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; Welsh: Senedd Cymru), local elections to community councils and the 22 principal areas, and the police and crime commissioner elections. In addition there are by-elections for each aforementioned election. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Three of these four types of elections are held after fixed periods; the exception is UK general elections, the timing of which is at the discretion of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Senedd elections may be postponed to avoid elections to the UK parliament and Senedd coinciding with each other.

The two electoral systems used for elections in Wales are: first-past-the-post (for UK elections, police and crime commissioner elections and local elections, though individual local authorities are able to move to STV under recent Welsh legislation) and the Closed Lists (for Senedd elections). The supplementary vote system was previously used for police and crime commissioner elections, until the system was switched for those elections to first-past-the-post under provision made by the Elections Act 2022. The previous Additional Members System for the Senedd was replaced for Closed list by the e Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024.^[1]