WALES:THE BRITISH Labour Party is likely to try and form a new coalition in Wales, possibly with its nationalist partners in the last administration, Plaid Cymru, or the Liberal Democrats, following its narrow failure to win a majority in the Welsh Assembly.
Labour finished with 30 seats, one short of the number needed to control the 60-seat assembly, following a strong performance by the Conservatives, who managed to increase their representation by two.
Though Labour’s first minister Carwyn Jones spoke during the campaign of wanting to govern alone, he and other senior figures began to talk about creating “a Labour-led” administration as it became clear a majority could not be won.
Plaid Cymru’s negotiating hand has been weakened by the loss of four seats, while the Liberal Democrats – battered because of the party’s involvement in a Westminster coalition with the Conservatives, lost one of the six seats it had.
Mr Jones, however, is in a much stronger position than his predecessor, Rhodri Morgan four years ago, who then faced the danger that he could be outflanked by Plaid leader Ieuan Wyn Jones at the head of a rainbow coalition. This cannot happen now.
In Wales, 40 of the assembly are elected under first-past-the-post rules, while 20 more are chosen from regional lists under the additional-members system according to the proportion of votes won.
The complicated voting rules meant that Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne lost his regional seat after his party had unexpected results in the constituency election, winning a seat in Montgomeryshire and unexpectedly holding in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire.
Because of these victories, the Conservatives in Mid-Wales were not entitled to a “top-up” regional seat, which meant Mr Bourne, the longest-surviving party leader in the assembly with 12 years at the helm, was defeated.
Plaid Cymru’s performance was affected, perhaps, because its attention was deflected earlier this year by the eventually successful referendum campaign to win more powers for the assembly, which the party had championed.
