All candidates for future Senedd election must live in Wales under new Welsh Government plans. Other proposed changes include introducing gender quotas, a ban on party defection as well as a requirement for independent candidates to disclose their membership of any political party, BBC Wales has reported.
These proposed plans come as part of the Senedd reform package, which will also see the number of Members of Senedd (MSs) increase from 60 to 96. The Welsh Government will provide an update by Easter of this year it says, but not everyone agrees with these new proposals.
Under these plans, a MS will be prevented from leaving a political party to join another at the Senedd. Gender quotas are also being proposed to ensure better female representation at the governing body, but there are some uncertainty whether the Senedd has the legal power to enforce such a change. The aim is to introduce these changes for the next Senedd election, which will be held in 2026.
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BBC Wales has been told further changes agreed included requiring candidates for Senedd elections to be resident in Wales, and a ban on party defections so MSs who are elected to represent a party will not be able to resign and join another party at the Senedd and will instead have to sit as independents. On top of this, independent candidates will have to disclose their membership of any political parties in the year ahead of an election.
Mohammad Ashgar became the first politician at the Senedd to cross parties when he moved from Plaid Cymru to the Conservative party in 2019. Following the 2016 Senedd election, six of the seven politicians who were elected to represent UKIP, left to join other parties. Under the proposed Welsh residency rule, UKIP leader Neil Hamilton would not have been able to represent Mid and West Wales following the 2016 election as he lived in Wiltshire.
In a meeting held for the Welsh Labour's ruling body before Christmas, it is said there was a "general support" among representatives for the proposed changes. But Labour's Welsh Executive Committee is said to have queried whether the Welsh residency rule "might put off talented potential candidates living elsewhere in the UK, who would be reluctant to risk moving to Wales if they could not be sure of being elected".
First Minister Mark Drakeford is said to have "acknowledged that this point had been considered but it had not been seen as a sufficient concern to justify abandoning the proposal". In response to these proposed changes, Plaid Cymru, which has been working with the government on Senedd reforms as part of their co-operation agreement, said that these changes "will be a significant milestone in Wales's constitutional journey". Ministers and Plaid Cymru are said to be finalising on details before publishing a proposed Senedd reform law by autumn 2023.
Plaid Cymru also added that creating a "stronger, more effective and more representative democracy to better serve the people of Wales" was at the focal point of its Senedd deal with the Welsh Labour government. A spokeswoman for the party added: "Almost 25 years since the Senedd was established, the proposed legislation will be a significant milestone in Wales' constitutional journey.
"The leader of Plaid Cymru [Adam Price] is working closely with the first minister on the development of the legislation, and we look forward to seeing the legislation introduced to the Senedd in due course."
However, the Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies has said that ministers should be "focused on fixing our Welsh NHS, our education system and our economy". He added: "Labour has no electoral mandate for their proposals and are happy for MPs to cross the floor to another party when it suits them... It is up to the electorate to determine how they are represented".
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