Montgomeryshire votes to be counted first in Powys

23/04/2021 @ 09:49

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

With less than two weeks to go to polling day on Thursday, May 6 the Senedd Election campaign is ramping up.

But, due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the social distancing guidelines that are in place, how the results will be counted and announced will be very different to usual.

In recent years votes from both Powys constituencies, Brecon and Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire have been counted by teams of Powys County Council workers at the Royal Welsh Showground, at Llanelwedd near Builth Wells.

Due to the vast size of both rural constituencies, boxes filled with votes need to travel down to the showground from as far afield as Llanfyllin and Machynlleth in Montgomeryshire, and up from Ystradgynlais and Crickhowell in Brecon and Radnorshire.

Counters have burned the midnight oil and results have been announced very late into the night and the early morning,

This time around, the votes will be counted on Friday, May 7, and instead of simultaneous counting, the teams in Powys will concentrate on one constituency before moving to the other one. This will probably see it be become an all day affair.

According to a Powys County Council spokesman, the “likely” way the counting will be done is:

On Friday morning, counting will begin in the Food Hall at the showground.
Firstly there will be a verification of the Montgomeryshire count.
This will be followed by a counting of the votes and then the votes for the Mid and West Wales Regional List.
The result declaration is earmarked to take place at the bandstand but arrangements for this could still change.
When this is completed and following a break for the workers, the whole process will start again for the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency.

Due to the need to limit the number of people at the count it is likely that any media will be based at another building on the showground where streaming of pictures from the counting will take place.

The Montgomeryshire candidates are:

Alison Alexander – Welsh Liberal Democrats

Kait Duerden – Welsh Labour

Gwyn Evans – Gwlad – The Welsh Independence Party

Russell George – Welsh Conservative

Oliver Lewis – Reform UK

Elwyn Vaughan – Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales.

Brecon and Radnorshire:

Emily Durrant – Green Party

James Evans – Welsh Conservative

Grenville Ham – Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales

Sam Holwill – Gwlad – The Welsh Independence Party