Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

Withdrawal of a party list candidate or individual candidate

A party list or individual candidate can withdraw their own candidature by giving you a notice of withdrawal.1
  
A notice of withdrawal for a party list or individual candidate must be:2

• signed by the candidate in the presence of a witness
• attested by one witness 
• delivered to you at one of the places specified for the delivery of nomination papers or by the arrangements set out in the electronic delivery statement

by 4pm ,19 working days before the poll.3

Withdrawal of candidate(s) from a party list

A party can withdraw the candidature of any or all of the candidates included in a party list.4
   
The withdrawal notice must be:5

• signed by the party Nominating Officer
• delivered to you at one of the places specified for the delivery of nomination papers or by the arrangements set out in the electronic delivery statement
• by 4pm,19 working days before the poll6

There are no restrictions on who can deliver the notice of withdrawal.

The withdrawal notice is not prescribed in legislation. We have produced template withdrawal notices for a candidate on a party list and an individual candidate, that you could give to someone who requests one.

You can find template withdrawal notices in the nominations section of our resource page.

The details of any candidates who by the close of withdrawals remain validly nominated must be printed on the statement of parties and other persons nominated.7

Return of deposit

Where an individual candidate withdraws, the deposit should be returned to the individual candidate, the person who made the deposit or that person’s personal representative.

If a candidate withdraws or is withdrawn from a party list the return of the deposit is only affected if the remaining number of candidates would be less than six. In these circumstances the deposit should be returned based on the proportion of candidates withdrawn. Deposits are returnable to the registered Nominating Officer which submitted the party list.