An election for the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ) was held on 7 May 2026, to elect all 96 members to the Senedd. It was the seventh devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for Wales) was established in 1999. It was the first election following numerous reforms: an increase in the size of the Senedd from 60 members to 96, the adoption of party-list proportional representation, the reduction of the number of constituencies to sixteen, and the shortening of its term from five years to four.
Welsh Labour lost government and its status as the largest party for the first time since devolution began in 1999, ending a winning streak that had lasted since the 1922 United Kingdom general election and representing a historic realignment of Welsh politics. Plaid Cymru emerged as the largest party for the first time with 43 seats by making massive breakthroughs in traditional southern Labour heartlands, while Reform UK secured second place with 34 seats. Labour was reduced to third place with a historic low of 9 seats. The Welsh Conservatives and the Wales Green Party won 7 and 2 seats respectively, with the Greens entering the Senedd for the first time. With her failure to secure a seat in the constituency of Ceredigion Penfro, First Minister Eluned Morgan became the first leader of a government in the UK to lose their seat while in office. Turnout was 51.72%, the highest ever for a Welsh devolved election.
The election was held on the same day as local elections in England, the Scottish Parliament election, in which the Scottish National Party were victorious. With Sinn Féin also in government in Northern Ireland, this would mark the first time that all three devolved nations were governed by first ministers opposed to the United Kingdom.
Background In the 2021 Senedd election, Welsh Labour won another government with one seat short of a majority. Shortly after, they entered a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, which fell short of a typical coalition or confidence and supply agreement but represented some degree of policy collaboration. At the 2022 Welsh local elections, the Welsh Conservatives suffered losses to Plaid Cymru and Labour.
In December 2023, Mark Drakeford announced he would stand down as First Minister, following the election of his successor. The ensuing Welsh Labour leadership election was won narrowly by Vaughan Gething. The Gething government lasted only until July 2024 due to two distinct scandals relating to allegations of cronyism and allegations that Gething had lied about deleting text messages relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, Plaid Cymru left the co-operation agreement.
In the midst of this, at the 2024 United Kingdom general election in Wales, Labour won the most seats and the Conservatives were wiped out: losing all their Welsh seats. Later in July, Gething announced he would stand down after a process to select his successor. The following July 2024 Welsh Labour leadership election was uncontested, with Eluned Morgan being elected.
At the UK-wide level, a number of other factors influenced the election, including various issues relating to the Starmer ministry and the ongoing United Kingdom cost-of-living crisis.
In October 2025, Plaid Cymru won the Caerphilly by-election from Labour, who had held the seat since the Senedd's inception in 1999 and its Westminister counterpart since the seat's creation in 1918.
Since the middle of the Gething Government, and continuing through successive events, Welsh Labour's polling performance had declined. Welsh Labour had previously been the most successful political party in the democratic era, having the longest winning streak of any political party. The 2026 vote is correspondingly considered to be seismic for Welsh politics and was touted as the "most consequential Senedd election since 1999". It has also attracted "unprecedented" interest internationally in Welsh politics, primarily from other European nations. Polls suggested a close race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.
The 2026 Senedd election was the first to feature an online elections information platform, vote.wales, managed by the Electoral Management Board for Wales, part of the Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru.
Electoral system
The 2026 Senedd election used a new electoral system following the approval of the Senedd Reform Act. Following conclusion of the count, the Senedd has 96 members, all elected through closed list proportional representation (using the D'Hondt method) in sixteen six-member constituencies. The 16 constituencies were created by pairing up the 32 Welsh Westminster constituencies. Parties nominated up to 8 candidates on their list in each constituency.
Voters were given one ballot, rather than two previously, and voted for one political party (or an independent candidate), rather than individual people, resulting in voters being unable to vote for a specific individual candidate. The available seats will then be distributed proportionally to the parties based on how many votes they received, electing the candidates in the order on their ranked party list. The single ballot paper showed the list of (up to) eight candidates next to each party in order, therefore showing all the candidates in a constituency on the ballot paper.
In the event that an elected Senedd member resigns, dies, or otherwise leaves office during the term, they will be replaced by the member below them on their party's list rather than a by-election being held. Should the relevant party's list for that constituency be exhausted, the seat will remain vacant for the remainder of the term.
In all prior elections since its establishment as the Welsh Assembly in 1999, the Senedd has been elected through the additional member system, and had 60 members, 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. The new electoral system was used only for elections held after 6 April 2026, to allow time for the new constituencies to be drawn up.
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 would be women; however, this bill was scrapped in September 2024.
Constituencies
Incumbent Senedd members MSs who retired are in italics. MSs who were reelected are in bold.
+Outgoing members2026 Senedd electionOld constituencyMemberOld regionMembersNew constituencyIncumbents runningAberconwyNorth Wales Ynys MônClwyd WestClwydDelynVale of ClwydAlyn and DeesideWrexhamClwyd SouthArfonDwyfor MeirionnyddMid and West Wales MontgomeryshireCarmarthen West andSouth PembrokeshireCeredigionPreseli PembrokeshireCarmarthen East and DinefwrLlanelliBrecon and RadnorshireNeathSouth Wales West GowerSwansea EastSwansea WestAberavonOgmoreRhondda(South Wales Central) Bridgend(South Wales West) Vale of GlamorganSouth Wales Central Cardiff South and PenarthCardiff WestCardiff CentralCardiff NorthCynon ValleyVikki Howells (Lab, #1)PontypriddMerthyr Tydfil and RhymneySouth Wales East Blaenau GwentCaerphillyIslwynNewport EastNewport WestMonmouthTorfaen
Parties and candidates Contesting parties Labour, Conservatives, Plaid Cymru, Reform UK, Liberal Democrats and the Green Party stood at least 6 candidates in all 16 constituencies. In some seats Labour, Conservatives and Plaid Cymru filed 7 or even 8 seats. Other parties stood in at least one constituencies were (with the number of constituencies stood in brackets): Heritage Party (16), Gwlad (6), Open Party (3), Propel (2), Britain's Communist Party (2), TUSC (2), Christian (1), Official Monster Raving Loony Party (1), Social Democratic Party (1) and the Socialist Labour Party (1). 30 independent candidates stood across 14 constituencies. Party Leader Ideology Seats at dissolution Labour Party Eluned MorganMS for Mid and West Wales (until 7 April 2026) Social democracyBritish unionism Conservative Party Darren MillarMS for Clwyd West (until 7 April 2026) ConservatismBritish unionism Plaid Cymru Rhun ap IorwerthMS for Ynys Môn (until 7 April 2026) Social democracyWelsh independence Reform UK Dan ThomasNot an MS (previous leader of Barnet Council) Right-wing populismHard Euroscepticism Liberal Democrats Jane DoddsMS for Mid and West Wales (until 7 April 2026) LiberalismBritish unionism Green Party Anthony SlaughterNot an MS Green politicsWelsh independence Communist Party of Britain Alex GordonNot an MS CommunismMarxism-Leninism Gwlad Gwyn Wigley EvansNot an MS Welsh nationalismWelsh independence Heritage Party David KurtenNot an MS British nationalismRight-wing populism Official Monster Raving Loony Party Alan "Howling Laud" HopeNot an MS Political satire Open Party Richard HadwinNot an MS Propel Neil McEvoyNot an MS Welsh nationalismWelsh independence Social Democratic Party William CloustonNot an MS Social democracyLeft-conservatism Socialist Labour Party Jim McDaidNot an MS SocialismRepublicanism Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Dave NellistNot an MS SocialismTrotskyism Welsh Christian Party Jeff GreenNot an MS Christian rightSocial conservatism Independents colspan=2 Source: BBC
Candidates and results
NB: MSs in office (i.e. incumbents) before the election who are seeking re-election are marked with "inc.". Elected members are in bold.
ConstituencyOrderLabourPlaid CymruConservativeReform UKLiberal DemocratsGreenOthers and independents 1Huw Irranca-Davies (11,123) (inc.)Sera Evans (24,538) Abigail Mainon (2,831)Benjamin McKenna (22,345)Dean Ronan (1,800) Nigel Pugh (2,561) Heritage: Captain Beany (Independent) 2 Buffy Williams (5,561.5) (inc.)Alun Cox (12,269) Peter Crocker-JacquesSteve Bayliss (11,172.5)Cen PhillipsAnna Tuhey 3 David Rees (inc.)Elyn Stephens (8,179.33) Tony Kear Darren James (7,448.33)Gerald Francis Stephanie Woodhouse 4 Stephanie GrimshawDanny Grehan (6,134.5) William Martin Louise MusgraveHelen Thomas David Wade 5 Lisa PritchardLuned-Mair BarrattRachael Astle Catrin ThomasJim Hehir Abby-lee Rees 6 Elaine WinstanleyWendy AllsoppBarbara Jones Zakery WeaverJames McGettrick Ellis Thomas 7 Dilwar Ali 8 Tamasree Mukhopadhyay 1Joanna Stallard (4,448) Rhun ap Iorwerth (31,057) (inc.)Janet Finch-Saunders (8,555) (inc.)Helen Jenner (19,440)Leena Farhat (1,591)Tomos Barlow (3,101) Mark Edward (Heritage) Jaime Fitter (Communist) Kathrine Jones (Socialist Labour Party) Sir Grumpus L Shorticus (OMRLP) 2Emily Owen Mair Rowlands (15,528.5) Harry Saville (4,277.5)John Clark (9,720)David McBrideLinda Rogers 3Margaret LewisElfed Williams (10,352.33) Martin Peet Richard John Jones (6,480)Mark Rosenthal Nick Bounds 4Rebecca Gibbons Dyfed Jones (7,764.25) Samantha Cotton Andrew Winston-JonesRob Atendstaedt Francis Cookson 5Huw Vaughan JonesNia Clwyd OwenDavid Ashworth Craig JonesSarah JacksonVanessa Hall 6Natasha Jose Vivek ThuppilLucy Samuel Dafydd Wyn ThomasPreben VangbergDavid Bunker 7 Lisa Elfyn Butler 8 Beca Roberts 1 Alun Davies (7,739) (inc.)Delyth Jewell (29,314) (inc.)Gareth Potter (3,353)Llŷr Powell (23,955)Steve Aicheler (1,284)Anne Baker (2,447) Mike Whatley (Independent) Jared Burgess (Heritage) Jordan Brace (Independent) Karen Horan (Open Party)