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During 23 years with the BBC, and 40 years in journalism (when he was trained to use simple language, avoiding jargon) political stories have always been fundamental for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, and now this is underlined by growing alarm that the turnout in the General Election (GE) was the second lowest for 100 years, and what this may mean for the crucial next Welsh Parliament/Senedd (WP/S) elections which will be the first since its expansion.
Are people falling out of love with voting?!
This question matters because a high turnout offers an electoral system legitimacy, conversely a low turnout worries opinion-formers.
That is why the latest figures about the numbers who did not vote in the General Election (GE) earlier this month concern the great and good, not least because of what they might mean for the next Welsh Parliament/Senedd (WP/S) elections.
It should be remembered that these elections (due on May 7 2026) will be the first since the WP/S was expanded from 60 members to 96.
Many agreed with this change, saying that there simply weren’t enough MSs (Members of the Senedd) to hold to account the executive in committees so Wales suffered.
But many others opposed this alteration, and objected to large salaries paid to even more politicians (as well as their staff) out of public coffers.
Therefore for those who supported the expansion, turnout is seen as crucial, and the numbers for the GE alarm them.
Turnout, defined as the proportion of registered voters who cast valid votes, was the second-lowest at this GE in a century, at just under 60 per cent.
In Wales turnout was even worse at just 56 per cent, 11 percentage points lower than in 2019 and the lowest for at least a century.
In the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney it was a measly 43 per cent.
Even in the past the turnout generally for the WP/S has been nothing to write home about, despite what commentators say.
In the 2021 WP/S election, for example, the voter turnout rate was just 47 percent (in other words MOST couldn’t be bothered to vote at all).
Yet this was described by Statista as an “increase of 1.3 percent compared with 2016”.
However an increase like this, when most did not vote at all, is hardly a cause for celebration.
They won’t be putting out the flags either if it is this figure (or lower) for the next WP/S election which is viewed as so important.
It might be though….
The memories of Phil’s decades long award-winning career in journalism (when political stories like this were critical) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disease Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Publication of another book, though, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – more evidence is emerging that as property prices recover, the cost of beach huts too are hitting new extraordinary levels, and this issue particularly affects Wales.
