Blaenau Gwent is a
constituency
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...
of the
Senedd
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
. It elects one
Member of the Senedd
A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; cy, Aelodau o'r Senedd; , plural:) (AS)., group=la is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd ...
by the
first past the post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the
South Wales East
South Wales East () is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, w ...
electoral region, which elects four
additional members, in addition to eight constituency members, to produce a degree of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
for the region as a whole.
Boundaries
The constituency was created for the
first election to the Assembly, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the
Blaenau Gwent Westminster constituency.
The other seven constituencies of the South Wales East electoral region are
Caerphilly
Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley.
It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...
,
Islwyn
The Borough of Islwyn was one of five local government districts of Gwent from 1974 to 1996.
History
The borough was formed in 1974 as a local government district of Gwent. It covered the whole area of three former districts and part of a four ...
,
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney,
Monmouth
Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...
,
Newport East,
Newport West and
Torfaen
Torfaen (; cy, Torfaen ) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. Torfaen is bordered by the county of Monmouthshire to the east, the city of Newport to the south, and the county boroughs of Caerphilly and Blaenau Gwent to the south ...
.
History
This seat has had large changes in percentages and swing. Labour have had large majorities but following
the By-election in 2006 Blaenau Gwent People's Voice
The Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group was a political party based in the Blaenau Gwent area of Wales.
The party was formed in the aftermath of the election to the House of Commons of Peter Law as an independent Member of Parliament, beating t ...
gained the seat, with the previous incumbent
Peter Law
Peter John Law (1 April 1948 – 25 April 2006) was a Welsh politician. For most of his career Law sat as a Labour councillor and subsequently Labour Co-operative Assembly member (AM) for Blaenau Gwent. Latterly he sat as an independent membe ...
's wife
Trish Law
Patricia Law, née Bolter (born 17 March 1954) is a Welsh politician who was the Blaenau Gwent People's Voice AM for Blaenau Gwent in Wales between 2006 and 2011.
Background
Patricia Bolter was born in Nantyglo, Blaenau Gwent, in 1954. She ...
taking the seat and holding it in the
2007 National Assembly for Wales election
The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Senedd, National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the ...
. The party did not stand in the
2011 election and Labour regained the seat with a very large majority. However, in the
2016 election this was slashed with
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
increasing their vote from 5.4% to 36.6%.
Blaenau Gwent People's Voice
The Blaenau Gwent People's Voice Group was a political party based in the Blaenau Gwent area of Wales.
The party was formed in the aftermath of the election to the House of Commons of Peter Law as an independent Member of Parliament, beating t ...
won the seat in the 2006 by-election and the 2007 election.
Voting
In general elections for the Senedd, each voter has two votes. The first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Member of the Senedd 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 only vote for 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 a method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in party-list proportional representation systems. It belongs to the class of highest- ...
, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation.
Assembly members and Members of the Senedd
Elections
Elections in the 2020s
Regional Ballot void votes: 165. Want of an Official Mark (0), Voting for more than ONE party or individual candidate (50), Writing or mark by which the Voter could be identified (0), Unmarked or Void for uncertainty (115)
Elections in the 2010s
Regional ballots rejected at the count: 171
Elections in the 2000s
2003 Electorate: 52,927
Regional ballots rejected: 300
Elections in the 1990s
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaenau Gwent (National Assembly For Wales Constituency)
Senedd constituencies in the South Wales East electoral region
1999 establishments in Wales
Constituencies established in 1999