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 A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

. On the same day local elections in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, 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 Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

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. 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,

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

s 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 Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

, 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

*Overall turnout – 43.7% , - , style="background-color:white" colspan=15 , Welsh assembly election 2007

, - !rowspan=3 colspan=2 , Parties !colspan=10 , Additional member system !rowspan=2 colspan=5 , Total seats , - !colspan=5 , Constituency !colspan=5 , Region , - ! Votes !! % !! +/− !! Seats !! +/− ! Votes !! % !! +/− !! Seats !! +/− ! Total !! +/− !! % , - , - , , , Total , , 978,132 , , , , , , 40 , , , , 974,884 , , , , , , 20 , , , , 60 , , , , (source:)

Votes summary

Constituency nominations

NB: ''candidates in'' BOLD ''text were incumbent assembly members before the election'' * Trish Law had defended the seat she won in the 2006 by-election. Then and now, she was standing as an independent, but was affiliated with the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group. * Ron Davies and John Marek stood as independents, but were members of and continued to play an active role in Forward Wales. Marek was the party's leader, while Davies was their Policy Director. Neither was elected on 3 May.

Regional lists

Mid and West Wales

, - ! colspan=2 style="width: 200px", Constituency ! style="width: 150px", Elected member ! style="width: 300px", Result * RESULT: Labour – 2 seats; Plaid Cymru – 1 seat; Conservative – 1 seat

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

* RESULT: Conservative – 2 seats; Plaid Cymru – 1 seat; LibDem – 1 seat

South Wales Central

* RESULT: Conservative – 2 seats; Plaid Cymru – 2 seats

South Wales East

* RESULT: Plaid Cymru – 2 seats; Conservative – 1 seat; LibDem – 1 seat * Mohammad Asghar was the first ethnic minority member of the Assembly for Plaid Cymru but on 8 December 2009, he switched to the Conservatives * Veronica German succeeded Mike German as the Liberal Democrat AM following his appointment to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

South Wales West

In South Wales West, there were also party lists from the Communist Party of Britain, Christian Peoples Alliance,

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

, 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. * Mohammad Asghar,

, South Wales East * Angela Burns, Welsh Conservative, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire * Alun Davies,

Welsh Labour Welsh Labour (), formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales (), is an autonomous section of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK), Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears have won a p ...

, Mid and West Wales * Andrew R. T. Davies, Welsh Conservative, South Wales Central * Paul Davies, Welsh Conservative, Preseli Pembrokeshire * Nerys Evans,

, Mid and West Wales * Chris Franks,

, South Wales Central * Lesley Griffiths,

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

* Bethan Jenkins,

, South Wales West * Gareth Jones,

, Aberconwy (previously represented Conwy, 1999–2003) * Darren Millar, Welsh Conservative, Clwyd West * Nick Ramsay, Welsh Conservative, Monmouth * Joyce Watson,

, Mid and West Wales

Defeated members

Nine sitting AMs were defeated at the polls. * Glyn Davies, Welsh Conservative, Mid and West Wales * Tamsin Dunwoody,

, Preseli Pembrokeshire * Lisa Francis, Welsh Conservative, Mid and West Wales * Christine Gwyther,

, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire * Denise Idris Jones,

, Conwy (defeated in Aberconwy) * Laura Anne Jones, Welsh Conservative, South Wales East * John Marek, Independent,

* Alun Pugh,

, Clwyd West * Catherine Thomas,

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

Retiring members

Four sitting AMs did not offer themselves for re-election. * David Davies, Welsh Conservative, Monmouth * Janet Davies,

, South Wales West * Sue Essex,

, Cardiff North * Owen John Thomas,

, South Wales Central

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 Caernarfon (; ) is a List of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom, royal town, Community (Wales), community and port in Gwynedd, Wales. It has a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the easter ...

, and Meirionydd nant Conwy were replaced by Aberconwy, Arfon and Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

References

External links

Results page
from

BBC News Online BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...

* The Press Association'
boundary change site

Wales@Westminster newslog – BBC Wales' Parliamentary correspondent David Cornock's diary on political lifeBBC Wales Politics pageBetsan Powys

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

' political editor, blogsite
Blamerbell Briefs
(Welsh Assembly blogger)

{{Welsh Assembly election, 2007

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

May 2007 in the United Kingdom