2014 Ty Isod Elections (Welsh History Post Glyndwr)

The 2013 Ty Isod Elections
With the fallout from the previous years upper house elections still resonating throughout Welsh politics the final year of the coalition government was fraught with tensions. With the Welsh election cycle at its perihelion the YDY sensed that the time was ripe to withdraw from formal coalition shortly after the upper house elections, with their leader, Iwan Meurig now supplying votes to the government on a vote by vote basis. This made the last months of Carwyn Jones’ government one of almost perpetual paralysis.

As with the upper house elections, the economy was central to all the parties campaigns with the YDY pushing their business credentials forward at every opportunity.

The 2013 Campaign
King Llewellyn formally ended the governments term of office on the 1st March 2013 with the Upper House taking over the role of government for the duration of the Lower House general election.

From the start it was clear that the main party contesting the election was the YDY. Opinion polls consistently Iwan Meurig’s party out in front with the old main parties struggling to keep up with the vibrant centrist party. The leaders debate on the 10th April saw a battling performance from Carwyn Jones against Iwan Meurig, but although almost all political commentators praised the Canghellor’s televised performance it was not translated into the polls.

Parties Contesting the Election (right to left by political spectrum)

 * Plaid Eryr Gwyn (White Eagle Party) - Far right
 * Plaid Catholig (Catholic Party) - Right wing party
 * Plaid Gwerinwr Cristnogol (Christian Democrat Party) - Centre right party
 * Y Ddraig Ymlaen (Foward the Dragon) - Centerist party
 * Plaid Gwerinwr Cymdeithasol (Social Democrat Party) - Centre left party
 * Plaid Gwyrdd (Green Party) - Environmental party
 * Plaid Sosialydd (Socialist Party) - Left wing party
 * Plaid Comiwnyddol (Communist Party) - Far left party

Electoral System
For seats in the Ty Isod the Assembly Members are elected by a mixture of First Past the Post (FPTP) constituencies and then the Additional Member system whereby an element of proportionality is introduced to the system. The System is designed to favour the national vote with 111 of the 173 seats coming by way of the National List, with 62 AM's representing the constituencies. This system was first introduced following the Great War of 1939-45 when the American's were influential in trying to prevent a Communist takeover of the country.

The Additional Members are elected via a simple national list. The parties post a list of candidates and these are selected in order according to the percentage of the national vote. This was the first election where the 5% rule was introduced, with parties needing to have won at least 5% of the national vote before additional seats could be gained

Election Night – 16th May 2013
During polling day, the exit polls were consistently predicting not only a large turn out from the voters, but a large swing towards the YDY. As the results started to trickle in it was seen that the polls were for once correct with the YDY rapidly running up good results from the constituency seats. By the end of the night the YDY were the single biggest party with 45 seats in total, but that was still far short of the 87 seats needed for a majority government