Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

The following guidance has been produced to support Returning Officers (ROs) in planning for and delivering Senedd elections.

The guidance has been developed in close consultation with members of the Electoral Management Board for Wales (EMB), the Wales Electoral Practitioner’s Working Group (WEPWG), the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) and Welsh government officials. It reflects the ROs legal obligations and what we, and colleagues across the electoral community, believe that ROs should expect of their staff in preparing for and delivering the Senedd elections.

At a Senedd election, the RO is the person who has been appointed as the Returning Officer for Senedd elections in that constituency; in the case of a constituency that includes more than one local authority, the RO will be designated by Welsh Ministers.1 This person may also be known as the Constituency Returning Officer (CRO).

Performance Standards

In addition to our role in providing advice and guidance, we set standards and monitor the performance of ROs through our performance standards framework.

Our guidance to support the delivery of your functions includes what we expect ROs will need to have in place and what we would expect to see for the key outcomes of the standards to be delivered. You should be mindful of this framework in the planning and delivery of the election.

For more information on the framework see our performance standards guidance for ROs.

How to use this guidance

This guidance is directed towards ROs and the duties they carry out. The RO is responsible for administering the Senedd election, including the conduct of the poll and the counting of the votes. 

As the ROs duties may, in practice, be carried out by deputies, we use the term you throughout this guidance to mean the RO and whoever is carrying out the RO’s functions on their behalf.

Throughout this guidance we use must to refer to a specific legal requirement and may / should for recommended practice.

Where the RO needs to consider cross-boundary scenarios, the information will be contained in an expanding section. This means that next to the relevant heading there is an icon with a + which will expand to show the relevant guidance.

You can also access Guidance for Candidates and Agents.

To help you use this guidance we have produced a Q&A document that should answer any initial queries you may have.

You can find the Q&A document in the roles and responsibilities section of our resources page.