Voters go to the polls in crucial by-election
Voting is now underway in a by-election that could mark a historic shift in Welsh politics.
Labour has run the Senedd since the devolved administration was first established in 1999 and Caerphilly has been one of its strongholds.
But opposition parties hoping to form the next Welsh Government have run fierce campaigns in the South Wales constituency.
Polling stations open at 7am and close at 10pm, and the result is expected in the early hours on Friday.
In recent polling, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK have been forecast as the two biggest parties in Wales next year.
Bellweather
The result in Caerphilly could be a bellwether for the Senedd election next May and is likely to be treated as such by the victorious party.
The by-election also comes in the run-up to a vote on the next Welsh Government budget, which has heaped even more pressure on the Labour campaign.
When passing its last budget in March, the Government needed the help of an opposition member to get it through by a tight margin.
While Labour is the largest party in the Senedd, it does not have a majority, and the next budget vote in January could be even more difficult if the party loses the Caerphilly seat.
Inquest
Speaking at a press conference in Caerphilly last month, Nigel Farage announced Reform’s candidate, Llyr Powell, and pledged to “throw everything” at the campaign in Caerphilly.
Plaid Cymru’s candidate, Lindsay Whittle, is a long-standing councillor in the Penyrheol ward and leader of the group on Caerphilly Council.
The Labour candidate is Richard Tunnicliffe, a financial analyst and publisher.
The candidates fielded by other parties are Gareth Potter, for the Conservatives, Gareth Hughes, for the Green Party, and Anthony Cook for Gwlad, a Welsh pro-independence party.
Steve Aicheler is running for the Liberal Democrats and Roger Quilliam is the candidate for Ukip.
The by-election was called following the death of Hefin Wyn David, a Labour politician who was first elected in Caerphilly in 2016.
There will be an inquest into his death in April next year.
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‘I hope people will think very carefully about the future’ said HRH The Queen ahead of the Scottish Independence Referendum in 2014 which went a long way to achieve the desired outcome of some. I cannot think why I thought of that on this day (polling day in Caerffili) as I wouldn’t dream of attempting to sway voters on their way to cast their vote in that election today, Oh no, not a chance that I would do that by warning anyone to ‘DEFORM’ their own futures by making a grave error. No, not a chance. I know that the… Read more »
Well said.
Thank you Amir but I wasn’t really saying anything that I wouldn’t say on any other day on which I would hope that nobody awakes with hate for others as their opening thought or the next or the next but strangely, I just had the time and felt the need to express that deep thought today. Sometimes a day off gives one the chance to think about things in a more considered way but in the end, it’s just another day.
How many of them went to reform school, Wales could get a very painful lesson in ‘due diligence’ that could smart for a whole Senedd term, not our best mark on the report card…examples too numerous to mention…
The locals should be encouraged to think very Caerffili.
I saw a pensioner interviewed by Will Hayward in Caerffili a few days ago, he said he would vote Reform and not vote Plaid as ” nobody in Wales speaks Welsh”. I remember for years Labour in the valleys telling voters, voting for Plaid you would be forced to speak Welsh, it was said to my mother by a labour canvasser in Pontypridd. This Labour tactic, used for decades, may well haunt us in the very near future. I despair thinking of our future.
Unfortunately Reform UK will easily win today without any policiies. Labour and the Conservatives are responsible for the rise of Reform, and now Wales will pay the price. I can foresee a high number of voters in Caerffili will treat today as a UK election in order to send a message. We can only hope that people wake up before the Welsh election in May.
Reform has been aided and abetted by British news and media for several years, giving them a platform when they did not even have any elected representatives, and never holding them to account over blatant lies and scaremongering. The mainstream media owned and run by very few people who favour the right in politics, doing this to further their interests.
Yes you are totally correct. However I do feel we cannot ignore the fact that Labour and the Conservatives failed to properly address the concerns people have on immigration and now here we are, supporting an extreme English nationalist party that have no care in the world for our language or tradition. Like someone posted above, I also despair when I think of our future.
I’m following up on my previous post to say that I’m so glad I was wrong! Well done Caerffili.
Nigel Farage is in Caerphilly Today and has been interviewed by Dan from VOW.Stanley is also there yet I was lead to believe that his party is Ben Habib’s Advance UK of which Mr 10 Names is a member.
So much for Reform trying to bluff people that it disassociates itself from The Far Right.