Election systems in Wales: the impacts of multi-level election reform on voting behaviour, ideology, and political understanding.

Wales finds itself in a unique position politically. Not only has it been dominated by an electoral hegemony of Welsh Labour for over a century (Wyn Jones, 2022), but following the introduction of the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill and the changes around local elections set out in the Local Elections (Principal Areas) (Single Transferable Vote) (Wales) Rules 2023, for the first time it now faces the novel prospect of having three electoral systems operating simultaneously; at the Westminster level, the Senedd election level, and the local level.

Study will examine the impacts that this incongruence between election systems may have caused. It hypothesises that these impacts may be visible in voting behaviours in these different elections, the differences in ideology and policy between the layers of political party organisation, or the impact these different electoral systems have on the political awareness and education of voters in Wales, and therefore possibly the overall turnout.