Row over Plaid Cymru’s ‘women first’ candidate selections for the Senedd election
Martin Shipton
A row has broken out within Plaid Cymru in mid Wales over a decision to insist that the top Senedd candidate in a new “super constituency” must be a woman.
Party members in Maldwyn and Glyndwr say no likely female candidate has come forward and point out that the decision was taken behind closed doors and without consultation.
Nation.Cymru has been leaked an email sent to Plaid’s chief executive Owen Roberts by Angus Eickhoff, Treasurer of the party in Maldwyn & Glyndwr.
Timing
The email states: “Referring to the Plaid meeting in Newtown on Monday March 3, the aim of having 50% or more female candidates for the next election is in principle excellent and Plaid leads the way on this. Moreover, the party is already doing very well, with four MPs at Westminster of whom three are women and 12 members in the Senedd, five of whom are women.
“However, the timing of this is hardly fortuitous. People have been working hard in Maldwyn-Glyndwr to bring the profile of Plaid Cymru to the fore but thus far there has been no likely female candidate. Moreover, we did not know until after the Westminster election last July what form the new Senedd election would take, in terms of electoral system, number of candidates or the size of constituency.
“What had previously been Maldwyn / Montgomeryshire was enlarged by the [Boundary] Commission to be Maldwyn-Glyndwr and now for the Senedd election will include Dwyfor Meirionnydd as well. A truly huge geographical area [to be known as Gwynedd Maldwyn].
“Not enough time has been allowed for any female activist to make herself known in the community and we are left with a situation in Maldwyn-Glyndwr where people might otherwise turn to Plaid as a new alternative but find they would be voting for someone they had never heard of nor understood. This may leave the door open for ‘Welsh Labour’ to be returned to government once again or, perish the thought, Reform Ltd.
“In consequence, really this decision should not have been implemented until after the Senedd election next year. Moreover, the discussions were held behind closed doors, so this is hardly a democratic outcome.
“In the meantime, have there been any legal challenges thus far to this resolution on account of the hearings being held ‘in camera’?
Super-constituencies
Next year will see the number of MSs increase from 60 to 96, together with the introduction of a new electoral system under which all MSs will be elected using the “closed list” method of proportional representation. Wales will be split into 16 “super-constituencies”, each of which will elect six MSs.
Under the new arrangements, Plaid Cymru has decided that eight of the “super-constituencies” shall have women candidates in the number one position on the closed list, while the other eight will be open selections for the top slot. However, in these latter seats, if a woman is chosen to head the list, a woman will also take the second position.
Gwynedd Maldwyn has been designated by Plaid Cymru as one of those where the top list candidate must be a woman.
Mid Wales is not the only area where some local Plaid members are unhappy with the implications of the gender policy.
Adam Price
In Carmarthenshire former party leader Adam Price is fighting a selection battle that could decide whether his political career continues.
Mr Price will be up against fellow sitting MS Cefin Campbell in the new Sir Gar super-constituency, which covers the whole of Carmarthenshire.
It also seems likely that former Mid and West Wales Assembly Member Nerys Evans will seek selection for Plaid in Sir Gar, providing another challenge for Mr Price.
If Ms Evans won the top slot in Sir Gar, the second-placed candidate would also have to be a woman – an outcome that could result in neither Mr Price nor Mr Campbell being elected.
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “Plaid Cymru’s selection procedures have been decided some time ago by votes of party members at the Annual Conference and at the National Council. We look forward to selecting a strong slate of candidates in all areas who can offer new ideas and leadership for Wales.”
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For god sake, select the best person for the job irrespective of their gender. I expect that the electorate of Mid Wales have far bigger issues to concern themselves with, then if their electorates was male or female. It is attitudes like this put people off voting Plaid and straight into the hands of Reform.
Just a thought for a little provocation. Looking at the sorry state of the world stage, it could be a good thing if men were barred from entering politics completely.
But what if that job is to represent you? Shouldn’t any democratically elected body broadly look like the group of people it’s supposed to serve? Can that still happen if it’s 96 teenagers who happened to get the best grades ever in Politics A level?
What is even worse than blatant sexism is hypocritical sexism, the most extreme examples under the guise of ‘diversity’. As correctly stated, the door is being opened for the nasty right by looney left policies such as this, but sadly Plaid are now deeply immersed in gesture politics.
Already closed lists will cause problems. I think it allows party apparatchiks to have way too much power.
Plaid needs to start thinking about finding the best PERSON for the job regardless of gender.
This foolish policy will alienate potential supporters and leaves the accusations that any female no matter how inexperienced will be given preferential access to a career in politics.
We have already seen how badly this looks for Plaid. The elevation of Carmen Smith whose very thin experience is frankly embarrassing
Get your act together Plaid.
If this lot had been on the Titanic they would have insisted on a lifeboat each…
Look up, a space lifeboat returns to Earth, the way they get on up there is remarkable…
This idiocy saw the election of Janet Ryder instead of Dafydd Wigley. No offence to Janet, but that was a disservice to Welsh political life.
So a woman could top the list in all 16 constituencies according to this story. Sounds like a very peculiar form of gender equality to me!!
‘Party members in Maldwyn and Glyndwr say no likely female candidate has come forward …’
Assuming that’s genuinely the case, is it really worth cleaving stubbornly to this stance?
I believe im right in saying that – since the advent of devolution in 1999 – plaid cymru policy has always been that one of the top two places on regional lists should be reserved for a female (a not unreasonable policy and which in 26 years has seen plaid return a healthy balance of males and females to the senedd in virtually equal numbers). But this new policy – which looks like it was quietly ushered thru at poorly attended gatherings by party apparatchiks – decrees that in half of the new ‘super constituencies’ that both the top two… Read more »
Considering this “row” has been leaked to the press rather than dealing with the matter internally, you can see indiscipline being a problem for Plaid if they were to be a governing party
Meanwhile, many Welsh voters, fed up of all this nonsense, are turning to Reform UK.
Plaid, stop trying to be another Labour, and ticking boxes, and start fighting for Wales and Welsh people!
What matters to Plaid.
This party isn’t going to challenge Reform or Labour in the south as it is. We all know it. They’ve agreed to a system that’s going to give them more seats next year and not because they’ve increased their vote share. They could well become the biggest party – and again not because they’ve increased their vote share.
Apathy and stagnation.
Who else are the voters that want to back a party which stands up to the London Government but sensibly reject the RefCon disaster going to vote for?
I’d rather the option of a party that can make the hard decisions, build leverage through a robust Independence campaign and actually shift the scales of power rather than one that “stands up to Westminster”.
Good intentions I’m sure. But ineffective. A reluctance to mirror the SNP of a decade ago. You’re not rejecting anything; because while we’re part of the UK, while Plaid Cymru is not building that Independence campaign the “RefCon” disaster and Labour is what we’re stuck with. As we have been for 25 years.
Plaid have announced a female candidate, Kerry Ferguson for Ceredigion Penfro (unsure if she will be top of the list) but as far as I can tell, no other candidate has been announced, including Elin Jones, which is od.