EA Bulletin: 407 Wales

As highlighted in bulletin 406 Wales, the final date for new parties, or new names, descriptions or emblems, to be added to the register is 07 April 2026. However, we can now confirm that all changes to the register of political parties prior to the close of nominations for the 7 May polls have now been processed and updated on the register.

We have created a summary of updates or changes to party names, descriptions or emblems made since 20 March 2026 below:

Updates registered in all of Great Britain
 

Party emblem zip file

The most up to date version of the zip file containing image files of all party emblems currently on the register can be downloaded through the link on this webpage. This was last updated on 30 March 2026.

Ahead of the Senedd election on 7 May 2026, we are running our ‘Your Vote is Yours Alone’ campaign in partnership with Crimestoppers to raise awareness of and help prevent electoral fraud. 

We have produced a suite of resources, available in English, Welsh, Bengali, Punjabi, and Urdu,   which highlight what constitutes electoral fraud and aims to empower people to protect their vote and report any concerns to Crimestoppers. You can help to prevent electoral fraud and raise awareness by sharing our resources which are available to download from our website.

These resources provide information on both voting at a polling station and by post, and are available in the following formats:

• videos
• posters
• leaflets
• online banners
• template social media posts and images 

Your Guide to the Senedd election 

The Electoral Commission  has published a booklet called Your guide to voting in the Senedd election, providing key information for voters ahead of the upcoming May election, which will see significant changes to the voting system and the way the Senedd functions.

The guide is available on our website in English, Welsh, Polish, and Arabic. It is also available in a range of accessible formats, including BSL, Easy Read, Large Print, Braille and audio. Bilingual hard copies have also been sent to all households in Wales from Monday 23rd of March.

The guide includes information on:

• The Senedd and its functions
• The new constituencies
• Who is eligible to vote
• Registering to vote
• Voting in person, by post and by proxy
• How to complete the ballot paper
• How the new voting system works 

For any questions about the campaign or the guide, please email [email protected].

As you know, at each set of elections, the Commission collects key administrative data from Electoral Registration Officers and Returning Officers. This data provides important evidence to support our work in reporting on elections across the UK.

We will collect the data using our usual data portal. From Friday 8 May you will be able to log on to the data portal to fill in data. You will receive an email to your electoral services email address with details on how to log on/reset your password on 8 May.

The deadline for completing this data will be Friday 5 June.

For local authorities that want to return voter ID data, we will collect this via the same data portal (this will be set up for the same VIDEF data as we collected in previous years). It is entirely optional to complete this data. If you do choose to collect and return the ID data to us, the deadline is also Friday 5 June.

For full details on the data we are collecting, please see the complete list. There are separate tabs for the core administrative data and the optional voter ID data. If you have any questions about the data collection, please contact [email protected].

Gathering feedback

Polling station staff survey 

We are carrying out a survey of polling station staff to collect feedback about their polling day experiences. We would appreciate your help in highlighting the survey to your polling station staff.

There will be two ways for staff to access the survey:

• The polling station handbook (hard copy and digital) features a QR code which staff can use a smart phone to scan to access the survey.
• We will provide a link to the online survey closer to polling day which you can circulate to your polling station staff. In both cases, the link to the survey will go live on the afternoon of polling day. If you have any queries about the survey, please contact [email protected].

Feedback from electoral administrators  

We would also like feedback from administrators and Returning Officers responsible for running the polls. This not only informs our post-election reporting but will also help us to improve how we support you in delivering well-run elections in the future. As usual, we will provide a link to the survey closer to polling day. If you have any queries about the feedback survey please contact [email protected]. 

You may be aware that last week on 25 March the UK government published the findings of the Rycroft Review, the independent review into countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government gave a ministerial statement in the House of Commons, on publication of the report.  There was also a written ministerial statement.

This set out the Government’s intention to immediately implement two of the recommendations, with legislation to follow:

• an annual £100,000 cap on total political donations and regulated transactions made by each overseas elector, and
• a moratorium on political donations made using cryptoassets, of any amount.

The intention is for these measures to apply retrospectively to any donations received from 25 March 2026 onwards. This includes candidates at May’s elections.

We are working urgently to understand the implications of this change in order to provide advice and support for you, as well as parties and campaigners, soon as possible.