Members of the National Assembly for Wales

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...

is composed of 60 members known as AMs or Assembly Members (in Welsh: ACau or Aelodau'r Cynulliad). Forty are chosen to represent each individual constituency, and 20 are chosen to represent the five regions of Wales.

Each person in Wales is represented by five AMs – one AM for their constituency (the local area in which they live), and another four AMs covering their region. Wales' five regions are: Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East and South Wales West.

Methods of election

AMs are elected in one of two ways:

First past the post constituency AMs or;
Regional additional-member AMs

Forty are elected

Elected

Elected is the latest EP by Dutch Progressive metal project Ayreon. It was released on April 25, 2008 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and on April 28 in the rest of Europe...

as constituency AMs and twenty are elected as additional members, four from each of five regional groups of constituencies. This additional member system

Mixed member proportional representation

Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...

produces a form of proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

for each region.

Elections

All AMs positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a four year cycle. If a vacancy arises at another time, due to death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

or resignation

Resignation

A resignation is the formal act of giving up or quitting one's office or position. It can also refer to the act of admitting defeat in a game like chess, indicated by the resigning player declaring "I resign", turning his king on its side, extending his hand, or stopping the chess clock...

, then it may be filled in one of two ways, depending of whether the vacancy is for a first-past-the-post

First-past-the-post

First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...

constituency AM or for an additional-member AM.

A constituency vacancy may be filled by a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

. An additional-member vacancy may be filled by the next available candidate on the relevant party list.

Methods of election

Elections

See also