Senedd election 2026 personal round-up

Well, hopefully you have seen the results of the election. Plaid Cymru won a whopping 43 seats and are comfortably the largest party in the Senedd. My constituency had the highest total number of Plaid Cymru voters in the country - I'd like to think all our canvassing activity helped with that.

I've posted several canvassing pics in my recent monthly round-ups, so here are the last few from the last week of the campaign, and a few other pics from what turned out to be a momentous election day.

Final canvass in Grangetown

Back in Pontyclun

Penarth

Cathy's epic window display went mildly viral.

This is what a boot full of leaflets looks like (ready for the last week of the campaign)

Speaking of leaflets, I did my final tally of party leaflets and we had 43! I think it's a new record. The main leafleting culprits were the Green Party. We had 17 from them. Again, I think that's a new record for one party. 

The breakdown was:

• Greens - 17
• Labour - 8
• Plaid Cymru - 6 (admittedly slightly skewed as I didn't deliver any to my own house!)
• Reform - 5
• Propel - 3
• Rhys ab Owen (Independent current member of the Senedd) - 3
• Communist - 1

We didn't get any from the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. That's a new low - normally we get a token one.

One of those boxes in my boot was distributed on bank holiday Monday. There was a team of 7 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. I walked 7 miles. Between us we gave out about 5,000 leaflets across 96 streets the length and width of Grangetown.

On election day I was involved in the Get Out The Vote activity where we knocked doors to remind people to vote. I walked even further - a total of 11 miles, knocking doors.

The window dragon got an update.

We went and voted during my brief break for lunch.

We finished knocking doors at about 8.30pm and then it was a case of waiting overnight. The next morning I was off to the vote count in the House of Sport. 

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the count, which was a shame because I wish I could have taken photos of the piles of voting slips. It was clear that Plaid Cymru were getting far more votes than anyone else. It was exciting to watch.

I could take photos in the lobby so I got my final campaign selfie with Anna. It felt weird not being at a train station!

We then got told the count results - and then the calculations for who won the seats, which confirmed that three of the six seats in Caerdydd Penarth would be held by Plaid Cymru. In particular, by these three brilliant people:

I got a bit emotional as news came through that Plaid Cymru had won three seats in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr as well - meaning my friend Sara is now a Senator too! Cathy was watching at home and sent me the confirmation.

After all the excitement at the count, I went to the Plaid Cymru watch party at The Grange. There were lots of joyful hugs! It gave me an opportunity to thank so many people who joined in the work in Grangetown. It was a wonderful end to an incredible day.