Government of Wales Act 1998

7 Return of electoral region members. U.K.

(1) The first seat for the Assembly electoral region shall be allocated to the party or individual candidate with the highest electoral region figure.

(2) The second and subsequent seats for the Assembly electoral region shall be allocated to the party or individual candidate with the highest electoral region figure after any recalculation required by subsection (3) has been carried out.

(3) This subsection requires a recalculation under section 6(1)(b) in relation to a party—

(a) for the first application of subsection (2), if the application of subsection (1) resulted in the allocation of a seat to the party, or

(b) for any subsequent application of subsection (2), if the previous application of that subsection did so;

and a recalculation shall be carried out after adding one to the aggregate mentioned in section 6(1)(b).

(4) An individual candidate already returned as an Assembly member shall be disregarded.

(5) Seats for the Assembly electoral region which are allocated to a party shall be filled by the persons on the party’s list in the order in which they appear on the list.

(6) Once a party’s list has been exhausted (by the return of persons included on it as Assembly members for Assembly constituencies or by the previous application of subsection (1) or (2)) the party shall be disregarded.

(7) If (on the application of subsection (1) or any application of subsection (2)) the highest electoral region figure is the electoral region figure of two or more parties or individual candidates, the subsection shall apply to each of them.

(8) However, where subsection (7) would mean that more than the full number of seats for the Assembly electoral region were allocated, subsection (1) or (2) shall not apply until—

(a) a recalculation has been carried out under section 6(1)(b) after adding one to the number of votes given for each party with that electoral region figure, and

(b) one has been added to the number of votes given for each individual candidate with that electoral region figure.

(9) If, after that, the highest electoral region figure is still the electoral region figure of two or more parties or individual candidates, the regional returning officer shall decide between them by lots.

(10) For the purposes of subsection (5) and section 9 a person included on a list submitted by a registered political party who is returned as an Assembly member shall be treated as ceasing to be on the list (even if his return is void).