Next Senedd Election

The next Senedd election is due to be held by 7 May 2026 to elect 96 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It will be the seventh devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for Wales) was established in 1999. If held in 2026 it will also be the first election following current reforms to the voting system, which would increase the size of the Senedd from 60 members to 96, adopting a party-list voting system, reducing the number of constituencies to sixteen, and shortening its term from five years to four. It will also be the second election since the Senedd changed its name in May 2020.

Electoral system

In all prior elections since its establishment as the Welsh Assembly in 1999, the Senedd has been elected through the additional member system, under which 40 out of 60 seats were elected by the first past the post system from single-member constituencies (the same as those used for Westminster), while the remaining 20 were attributed regionally (in 5 regions of 4 seats) on the basis of a second vote for a closed party list of candidates. The additional member seats in each region were allocated from the lists by the D'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation.

Following the approval of the Senedd Reform Act, the size of the Senedd will be increased from 60 to 96 MSs, all elected through closed party list proportional representation (using the D'Hondt method). The elections will be organised in 16 six-member constituencies created by pairing up the 32 redrawn Westminster constituencies.

Although the new system would only be ready and used for elections held after 6 April 2026, to allow time for the new constituencies to be drawn up. The next election is due to be held on 7 May 2026.

Another proposed reform bill would have provided for mandatory " zipping" of male and female candidates in the list to ensure that for every party, half of the Members will be women. However, this bill was scrapped in September 2024.

Constituencies

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Comparison with 2021 Senedd election

Candidates

NB: MSs in office (i.e. incumbents) before the election are bolded.

Campaign

On 2 February 2025, Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan said she would be open to a coalition with Plaid Cymru after the election "if needs must". She ruled out a coalition with Reform UK, as she thought there was a "red line on that one". She rejected the suggestion put to her that Welsh Labour was under threat at the election, explaining that there is "an international shift going on at the moment and we've got several months now to make sure people understand what's at stake here". She also called Reform an "English focused party" with "nothing Welsh about" them. A day later, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth similarly ruled out working with Reform, describing the two parties' worldviews as "fundamentally different."

In April 2025 Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party "would work with any other Senedd party" and that the new voting system means "it's not going to be easy" to win an overall majority.

Opinion polling

Retiring members

The following MSs have announced their intention to not run for re-election:

Notes

See also

* Next Scottish Parliament election
* Next Northern Ireland Assembly election
* 2024 United Kingdom general election in Wales
* 2024 United Kingdom general election

References

External links

Next Senedd election

{{Welsh elections

2020s elections in Wales
General elections to the Senedd
Future elections in the United Kingdom