Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood announcement that she plans to stand as both a constituency and a regional candidate in the 2016 assembly election has hardly cone as a surprise
She said she would "go all out" to win Rhondda, but also seek to be on Plaid's regional list for South Wales Central, as recent rule changes allow.
Candidates are no longer banned from standing in both types of seat.
It means that if Ms Wood fails to win Rhondda she is still likely to be elected via the regional list.
Labour's Public Services Minister Leighton Andrews, who currently holds the constituency seat, said he would only stand in Rhondda.. Though it is believed Labour will bar members from dual candidacy as they brought the original change in the rules to stop candidates standing in a constituency and regional seat.
Even if he lost it would have to be a bad might in South Wales Central for Leighton Andrews even if he was to top the list to enter the Assembly via the "Top UP" regional seat.
On a visit to the Toyota plant in Flintshire on Thursday, Ms Wood told BBC Wales: "It's something I said quite some time ago actually, it's not news.
"I intend to stand in the Rhondda, where I live, and I'll be going all out to win the first-past-the-post seat there.
"But since the rules have now changed, I will be submitting my name for the regional list as well and I would encourage other politicians to do the same."
She accused Labour politicians of "making mischief", pointing out that Mr Andrew himself stood as a dual candidate in 2003.
Labour AM Alun Davies tweeted
Mr Davies whose ego knows no limit was Regional List AM for Mid and West Wales from 2007-2011 and it would be very odd iif he had stood for election on that regional List iand Blaneau Gwent even if he had been allowed
Originally nearly every Labour Candidate went for the dual seat option before they changed the rules .for the 2007 election . Even Rhodri Miorgan was top of the South Wales Central, in the 2003 election
But the real question is can Leanne win the Rhondda?
Plaid result in the GE2015 where it increase it vote gives some encouragement
| General Election 2015: Rhondda | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Chris Bryant | 15,976 | 50.7 | -4.6 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Shelley Rees-Owen | 8,521 | 27.0 | +8.9 | |
| UKIP | Ron Hughes | 3,998 | 12.7 | +11.5 | |
| Conservative | Lyn Hudson | 2,116 | 6.7 | +0.3 | |
| Liberal Democrat | George Summers[7] | 474 | 1.5 | -9.1 | |
| Green | Lisa Rapado | 453 | 1.4 | +1.4 | |
| Majority | 7,455 | 23.6 | |||
| Turnout | 31,538 | 60.9 | +0.6 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Labour sem to be concerned as Gareth Hughes points out
This is a cause of some concern to Labour in defending the seat. So much so, that they have advertised for a full time organizer for the Rhondda alone.
Labour will try to give the impression that Plaid know they can't win in the Rhondda whether it willwork is questionable but the ridiculous posturing of Alun Davies is hardly going to make people change their voting intentions
3 comments:
Good Idea , Leanne is a star
Andrews and Davies know there is no point putting their names down for the regional seats as it is virtually impossible for them to be elected by that route. They know because of the electoral system a vote for Labour in the top up element is a wasted vote. Will be interesting to see how they deal with the potential UKIP gains in the top up section. Do they want UKIP to have a platform that can be used as a staging post to attack constituency seat at Assembly level and possibly Westminster seats in the future or will they soft peddle in the hope that Plaid can do some of the heavy lifting for them.
We've no particular love for welsh labour glyn but with all respect all they have done is use leanne's own past statements against her. in 2012 she insisted she'd only contest a constituency seat in 2016 stating
“Some will, I am sure, point out that I am giving up the relative safety of a regional seat to choose the much riskier option of a constituency battle. But it’s a risk I believe is worth taking. Why? Because our politics will not be renewed by the politics of safety first. I believe I can win. I believe we can win. But most importantly I believe Wales can win".
Well it's a safe bet that leanne's acceptance of a place on the regional list means she no longer believes she can win the rhondda constituency. And no question she's made herself look foolish over this, alas all a consequence of a rash ill thought out statement statement she made 3 years ago.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plaid-leader-leanne-wood-abandon-2016999
On a par with her 'bombshell' at the plaid conference last year when she told party delegates the party was withdrawing support for a referendum on income tax varying powers for wales. she must surely know this statement is unsustainable, given the fact many plaid members threw themselves into the referendum campaigns of 1979, 1997 and 2011 and most certainly would do so again if a referendum does take place on income tax varying powers for wales.
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