Labour Party hopes of an overall majority in Wales will go down to the wire as counting continues with 13 seats left to fill in the Assembly elections.
Labour was hoping for 31 seats to allow a break from coalition partner Plaid Cymru. With 31 of 40 constituencies declared by 10am, Labour accumulated 25 seats, Tories have 8, Plaid Cymru have 7 and the Lib Dems have 3.
In the last assembly, Labour held 26 seats, Plaid 14, Tories 13, Lib Dems six, and one independent.
Labour's Julie Morgan succeeded in following her husband and former first minister Rhodri into the corridors of power in the Welsh Assembly, defeating erstwhile Tory Assembly member Jonathan Morgan by more than 2,000 votes.
The 66-year-old Labour candidate spoke of her delight at winning one of the assembly election's most closely-fought constituencies, as well as paying tribute to her main rival.
Mrs Morgan's victory was made all the sweeter for Labour after Jenny Rathbone edged the Cardiff Central seat from the Liberal Democrats by just 38 votes - in a poll in which the number of spoiled ballots totalled more than 300.
In her speech, she lambasted her main rival Nigel Howells and the Lib Dems for using "dirty tricks" during their campaign.
The loss was another bitter pill for the Lib Dems, who have seen their support drop.
But the party survived any high-profile scalps, unlike Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives. Plaid saw their deputy leader Helen Mary Jones lose the Llanelli constituency and the Tories lost their leader in the Senedd when Nick Bourne missed out on a regional seat in the Mid and West Wales region.
PA