Member of the Senedd

A Member of the Senedd (MS; plural: MSs; Welsh: Aelodau o'r Senedd; AS, plural:ASau)[lower-alpha 1] is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd constituencies, and twenty to represent the five electoral regions of the Senedd in 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 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 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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Diagram showing the current party affiliation of the 60 members of the Senedd as of September 2023. Colours below, left to right:

  Plaid Cymru: 12 seats

  Independent: 1 seat

  Liberal Democrat: 1 seat

  Labour: 30 seats

  Conservative: 16 seats

Each person in Wales is represented by five MSs: one for their local constituency (encompassing their local area where they reside), and another four covering their electoral region (a large grouping of constituencies). Wales's five electoral regions are Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East and South Wales West.[1]

A holder of this office was formerly known as an Assembly Member (AM; plural: AMs; Welsh: Aelodau'r Cynulliad; AC, plural: ACau), under the legislature's former name, the National Assembly for Wales, from its inception in 1999 until 2020 when it adopted its current names, Welsh Parliament, and Senedd Cymru, simply referred to as Senedd in both English and Welsh.[2][3]

Since 2011, members are elected for a five-year term of office under an additional member system, in which 40 MSs represent smaller geographical divisions known as "constituencies" and are elected by first-past-the-post voting, and 20 MSs represent five "electoral regions" using the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. Typically, the largest party holding the largest number of MSs in the Senedd forms the Welsh Government, and in the event of not securing a majority of MSs, the largest party has first rights to begin coalition talks with other smaller parties. Prior to 2011, they held four-year terms, with some MSs calling for a return of four-year terms from the current five.[4] There have been calls to increase the numbers of members of the Senedd to around 90–100, with proposals met with criticism.[5][6]