Government of Wales Act 2006

9 Allocation of seats to electoral region members

(1) The first seat for the Assembly electoral region is to 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 are to 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 paragraph (b) of section 8(3) in relation to a party—

(a) for the first application of subsection (2), if the application of subsection (1) resulted in the allocation of an Assembly 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 is to be carried out after adding one to the aggregate mentioned in that paragraph.

(4) An individual candidate already returned as an Assembly regional member is to be disregarded.

(5) Seats for the Assembly electoral region which are allocated to a party are to 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 regional members by the previous application of subsection (1) or (2), the party is to 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 applies to each of them.

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

(a) a recalculation has been carried out under section 8(3)(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 must decide between them by lots.