Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Assembly constituency)

Coordinates: 52°50′56″N 3°58′59″W / 52.849°N 3.983°W

Dwyfor Meirionnydd
National Assembly for Wales county constituency
Dwyfor Meirionnydd shown within the Mid and West Wales electoral region and the region shown within Wales
Current National Assembly for Wales county constituency
Created	2007
Party	Plaid Cymru
AM	Dafydd Elis-Thomas
Preserved county	Gwynedd
Created from	Caernarfon and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy

Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales, created for the 2007 Assembly election. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the Mid and West Wales electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to nine constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Boundaries

The constituency shares the boundaries of the Dwyfor Meirionnydd Westminster constituency, which came into use for the 2010 United Kingdom general election, created by merging into one constituency areas which were previously within the Caernarfon and Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituencies.

Caernarfon is a Gwynedd constituency, entirely within the preserved county of Gwynedd, and one of nine constituencies in the North Wales region. Meirionnydd Nant Conwy was partly a Gwynedd constituency and partly a Clwyd constituency, partly within the preserved county of Gwynedd and partly within the preserved county of Clwyd, and one of eight constituencies in the Mid and West Wales electoral region.

Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a Gwynedd constituency, one of three constituencies entirely within the preserved county of Gwynedd, and one of eight constituencies in the Mid and West Wales electoral region. The other Gwynedd constituencies, however, Arfon and Ynys Môn, are within the North Wales electoral region.

The Mid and West Wales region consists of the constituencies of Brecon and Radnorshire, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Llanelli, Montgomeryshire and Preseli Pembrokeshire.

Voting

In general elections for the National Assembly for Wales, each voter has two votes. The first vote may be used to vote for a candidate to become the Assembly Member for the voter's constituency, elected by the first-past-the-post system. The second vote may be used to vote for a regional closed party list of candidates. Additional member seats are allocated from the lists by the d'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation.

Assembly Members

The seat has been represented since its creation in 2007 by Dafydd Elis-Thomas of Plaid Cymru, the Assembly's former Presiding Officer. He previously represented the former constituency of Meirionnydd Nant Conwy from 1999 to 2007, and was the Westminster MP for the area from 1974 to 1992.

Period		Member	Party	Image
	2007	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	Plaid Cymru
	2016[1]		Independent

Elections

Elections in the 2010s

Welsh Assembly Election 2016: Dwyfor Meirionnydd

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	9,566	47.3	+0.7
	Conservative	Neil Fairlamb	3,160	15.6	−4.8
	Labour	Ian MacIntyre	2,443	12.1	−0.6
	UKIP	Frank Wykes	2,149	10.6	+10.6
	Independent	Louise Hughes	1,259	6.2	+6.2
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen Churchman	916	4.5	−0.3
	Green	Alice Hooker-Stroud	743	3.7	+3.7
Majority			6,406
Turnout				46.7
	Plaid Cymru hold		Swing	+0.4

Welsh Assembly Election 2011: Dwyfor Meirionnydd^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	9,656	46.6	−13.1
	Conservative	Simon Baynes	4,239	20.4	+0.8
	Llais Gwynedd	Louise Hughes	3,225	15.5	N/A
	Labour	Martyn Stuart Singleton	2,623	12.6	+0.2
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen William Churchman	1,000	4.8	−3.5
Majority			5,417	26.1	−14.0
Turnout			20,743	46.3	−1.1
	Plaid Cymru hold		Swing	−7.0

Elections in the 2000s

Welsh Assembly Election 2007: Dwyfor Meirionnydd

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Plaid Cymru	Dafydd Elis-Thomas	13,201	59.7	+2.3
	Conservative	Mike Wood	4,333	19.6	+5.5
	Labour	David Mervyn Phillips	2,749	12.4	−9.1
	Liberal Democrats	Stephen William Churchman	1,839	8.3	+1.3
Majority			8,868	40.1
Turnout			22,122	47.4	+3.4
	Plaid Cymru win (new seat)

References

1. "Plaid Cymru AM Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas quits party". BBC News Online. 14 October 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
2. "Wales elections > Dwyfor Meirionnydd". BBC News. 6 May 2011.