Cardiff West (Assembly constituency)

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

For the geographical area, see Cardiff West (geographical area).

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

Cardiff West (Welsh: Gorllewin Caerdydd) 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 West Westminster constituency. It is entirely within the preserved county of South Glamorgan.

The other seven constituencies of the region are Cardiff Central, Cardiff North, Cardiff South and Penarth, 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

From the Assembly's inception in 1999, until his retirement at the 2011 election, former First Minister Rhodri Morgan was AM for Cardiff West.

Period		Member	Party
	1999 - 2011	Rhodri Morgan	Labour Party
	2011 - present	Mark Drakeford	Labour Party

Elections

Assembly Election 2011: Cardiff West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Mark Drakeford	13,067	47.1	+8.5
	Conservative	Craig Williams	7,166	25.8	+1
	Plaid Cymru	Neil McEvoy	5,551	20	-1.2
	Liberal Democrats	David Morgan	1,942	7	-8.2
Majority			5,901	21.3
Turnout			27,726	43.8

Assembly Election 2007: Cardiff West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rhodri Morgan	10,390	38.6	-10.4
	Conservative	Craig Williams	6,692	24.9	+7.1
	Plaid Cymru	Neil McEvoy	5,719	21.3	+5.8
	Liberal Democrats	Alison Goldsworthy	4,088	15.2	+1.6
Majority			3,698	13.8	-17.5
Turnout			26,889	41.6
	Labour hold		Swing

Assembly Election 2003: Cardiff West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rhodri Morgan	10,420	50.3	-11.3
	Conservative	Heather Douglas	3,583	17.3	+2.5
	Liberal Democrats	Jaqueline-Anne Gasson	2,914	14.1	+5.2
	Plaid Cymru	Eluned Bush	2,859	13.8	-0.8
	UKIP	Frank Hughes	929	4.5	+4.5
Majority			6,837	33.0	-13.8
Turnout			21,413	35.4	-5.1
	Labour hold		Swing

Assembly Election 1999: Cardiff West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rhodri Morgan	14,305	61.6
	Conservative	Myr Boult	3,446	14.8
	Plaid Cymru	Eluned Bush	3,402	14.7
	Liberal Democrats	Dewi Garrow-Smith	2,063	8.9
Majority			10,859	46.8
Turnout			23,216	40.3
	Labour hold		Swing