Cardiff Central (Assembly constituency)

Not to be confused with Cardiff Central (UK Parliament constituency).

Cardiff Central National Assembly for Wales borough constituency
Cardiff Central shown within the South Wales Central electoral region and the region shown within Wales
Created:	1999
AM:	Jenny Rathbone
Party:	Labour
Preserved county:	South Glamorgan

Cardiff Central is a constituency of the National Assembly for Wales. It elects one Assembly Member by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the South Wales Central electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to eight constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Boundaries

The constituency was created for the first election to the Assembly, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of the Cardiff Central Westminster constituency. It is entirely within the preserved county of South Glamorgan.

The other seven constituencies of the region are Cardiff North, Cardiff South and Penarth, Cardiff West, Cynon Valley, Pontypridd, Rhondda and Vale of Glamorgan.

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

Period		Member	Party
	1999 to 2011	Jenny Randerson	Liberal Democrat
	2011 to Present	Jenny Rathbone	Labour

Elections

Assembly Election 2011: Cardiff Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jenny Rathbone	8,954	37.9	+16
	Liberal Democrats	Nigel Howells	8,916	37.7	-13.4
	Conservative	Matt Smith	3,559	15.1	+1.1
	Plaid Cymru	Chris Williams	1,690	7.2	-1.1
	Independent	Mathab Khan	509	2.2	N/A
Majority			38	0.2
Turnout			23,628	38.0	+2.0
	Labour gain from Liberal Democrats		Swing	+14.7

Assembly Election 2007: Cardiff Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Jenny Randerson	11,462	51.2	-3.4
	Labour	Sue Lent	4,897	21.9	+2.0
	Conservative	Andrew Murphy	3,137	14.0	+2.5
	Plaid Cymru	Thomas Whitfield	1,855	8.3	-0.4
	UKIP	Frank Hughes	1,046	4.7	+4.7
Majority			6,565	29.3	-5.4
Turnout			22,397	36.0	+3.0
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Assembly Election 2003: Cardiff Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Jenny Randerson	11,256	54.6	+12.4
	Labour	Geoff Mungham	4,100	19.9	-10.1
	Conservative	Craig Piper	2,378	11.5	-0.2
	Plaid Cymru	Owen Thomas	1,795	8.7	-6.0
	Independent	Raja Raiz	541	2.6	+2.6
	Independent	Captain Beany	289	1.4	+1.4
	Independent	Madeleine Jeremy	239	1.2	+1.2
Majority			7,156	34.7	+22.4
Turnout			21,052	33.7	-11.3
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Assembly Election 1999: Cardiff Central
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Jenny Randerson	10,937	42.3
	Labour	Mark Drakeford	7,769	30.0
	Plaid Cymru	Owen Thomas	3,795	14.7
	Conservative	Stephen Jones	3,034	11.7
	Socialist Alliance	Julian Goss	338	1.3
Majority			3,168	12.3
Turnout			25,873	44.8