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1999 National Assembly for Wales election

6 May 1999 2003 →
All 60 seats to the National Assembly for Wales 31 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	46.3%
First party Second party   Leader Alun Michael Dafydd Wigley Party Labour Plaid Cymru Leader's seat Mid & West Wales Caernarfon Seats won 28 17 FPTP Vote 384,671 290,572 Percentage 37.6% 28.4% List Vote 361,657 312,048 Percentage 35.4% 30.5%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Rod Richards Michael German Party Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader's seat North Wales South Wales East Seats won 9 6 FPTP Vote 162,133 137,857 Percentage 15.8% 13.5% List Vote 168,206 128,008 Percentage 16.5% 12.5%
First Secretary after election Alun Michael Labour

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The 1999 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 6 May 1999 to elect 60 members to the Senedd, at the time called the National Assembly for Wales (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru). It was the first devolved general election held in Wales after the successful 1997 Welsh devolution referendum. The election was held alongside the Scottish Parliament election (also the first of its kind) and English local elections.

Although Welsh Labour were the biggest party, they did not gain enough seats to form a majority government and instead entered into coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The election was marked by the historically high level of support for Plaid Cymru, who won their highest share of the vote in any Wales-wide election and remains their highest number of seats in a Senedd election to date. The party won considerable support in traditionally safe Labour areas such as the South Wales Valleys, winning Rhondda and Islwyn and narrowly failing to win a number of other seats.

The overall turnout of voters was 46.3%. This would remain the highest ever turnout for a devolved election in Wales until the 2021 Senedd election, which saw 46.6 of voters cast their ballot.

Election results

• Overall turnout: 46.3%

1999 Welsh Assembly election

Parties		Additional member system										Total seats
		Constituency					Region
		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−	Total	+/−	%
	Labour	384,671	37.6	N/A	27	N/A	361,657	35.4	N/A	1	N/A	28	N/A	46.7
	Plaid Cymru	290,572	28.4	N/A	9	N/A	312,048	30.5	N/A	8	N/A	17	N/A	28.3
	Conservative	162,133	15.8	N/A	1	N/A	168,206	16.5	N/A	8	N/A	9	N/A	15.0
	Liberal Democrats	137,857	13.5	N/A	3	N/A	128,008	12.5	N/A	3	N/A	6	N/A	10.0
	Green	1,002	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	25,858	2.5	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Socialist Labour	-	-	-	-	-	10,720	1.0	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Natural Law	-	-	-	-	-	3,861	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	United Socialist	3,967	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	3,590	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Communist	609	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	1,366	0.1	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Independent	30,554	3.0	N/A	0	N/A	-	-	-	-	-	0	N/A	0
	Independent Labour	4,134	0.4	N/A	0	N/A	-	-	-	-	-	0	N/A	0
	Others	7,736	0.8	N/A	0	N/A	4,673	0.5	N/A	0	N/A	0	N/A	0
	Total	1,023,225			40		1,019,987			20		60

Votes summary

Constituency and regional summary

Mid and West Wales

North Wales

South Wales Central

South Wales East

South Wales West

Opinion polls

See also

• Senedd (formerly National Assembly for Wales)
• Senedd constituencies and electoral regions

References

1. Morgan, Bryn (12 May 1999). "Research Paper 99/51 – Welsh Assembly Elections: 6 May 1999". House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
2. Clark, D. (9 July 2021). "Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru) turnout rate 2021". Statista. Retrieved 4 March 2023.

External links

• 1999 Welsh National Assembly Election at BBC News

Manifestos

• Welsh Labour
• Welsh Liberal Democrats
• Plaid Cymru

• General elections to the Senedd
• 1999 elections in the United Kingdom
• 1999 in Wales
• 1990s elections in Wales
• May 1999 events in the United Kingdom