Guidance for Returning Officers administering a Senedd election

The ballot paper must contain:1

• the names or descriptions of the political parties together with the names of the candidates included on those parties’ lists and the word Wales, Welsh, Cymru or Cymreig if a political party has chosen to use it in the registered party name
• the names of the individual candidates together with the words independent / annibynnol as appropriate

Candidate names2

The party and individual candidates must appear on the ballot paper in the order that they are listed in the statement of parties and persons nominated and their relevant details must be printed in accordance with the directions for printing.3

Individual candidate surnames must appear in capital letters, including the capitalisation of surnames beginning with MAC or MC and the names should follow strict alphabetisation e.g. MABBOT, MACLEAN, MATTHEWS, MCCORMICK, MORRISON, other names must be in lower case with only the initial as a capital.

Where a candidate has listed multiple names as their surname, either hyphenated or not, you should reproduce the whole name as provided. For example Dick Van Dyke would appear as VAN DYKE, Dick on the ballot paper and for alphabetisation purposes their surname would start with a V.

Similarly, Ann Smith-Jones would be SMITH-JONES, Ann on the ballot paper and would be listed as an S for alphabetisation purposes. 

Party list candidate names must appear in smaller type than the name of the party itself in lower case with only the initial shown in capitals. 

Emblems4  

Party list submissions can request the use of a party emblem on the ballot paper. In these cases you may be provided with a high-resolution copy of the emblem for use in the printing of ballot papers. Alternatively you may need to download the emblem from our website. You should ensure that whatever copy is used is in the same form as the registered emblem.

The maximum size of an emblem on the ballot paper is two centimetres square. Do not alter or distort the shape of the emblem to fit the ballot paper. You should ensure that the emblem is in the same form as the registered emblem – for example, do not stretch emblems into square shapes if they are not registered as square images on our website, as this would have the effect of altering their appearance.