Member of the National Assembly for Wales

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The National Assembly for Wales is composed of 60 members known as Assembly Members or AMs (in Welsh: Aelodau'r Cynulliad or ACau). Forty are chosen to represent each individual constituency, and 20 are chosen to represent the five electoral regions in Wales.

Each person in Wales is represented by five AMs – one AM for their constituency (the local area in which they live), and another four AMs covering their region. Wales' five electoral regions are: Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East and South Wales West.[1]

Methods of election

AMs are elected in one of two ways: [2]

  1. First past the post constituency AMs or;
  2. Regional additional-member AMs

Forty are elected as constituency AMs and twenty are elected as additional members, four from each of five regional groups of constituencies. This additional member system produces a form of proportional representation for each region.

Elections

All AMs positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a four-year cycle. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death or resignation, then it may be filled in one of two ways, depending of whether the vacancy is for a first-past-the-post constituency AM or for an additional-member AM.

A constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election. An additional-member vacancy may be filled by the next available candidate on the relevant party list.

Proposed change

In a written statement by Elin Jones AM, the Chair of the Assembly Commission, entitled "Assembly Reform Programme" she confirmed that in July 2016, the Welsh Assembly agreed unanimously that the name of members should change from Assembly Members to Welsh Parliament Members or WPMs (in Welsh: Aelodau o Senedd Cymru or ASC). The change should be legislated for before the end of the current Assembly in May 2021.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Explore the Assembly education website Archived 11 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "Government of Wales Act 2006". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Assembly Reform Programme" (pdf). Assembly Commission. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
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