May 2026 elections - guidance update

Guidance for Returning Officers

As set out in Bulletin 394, we have now published our guidance for Returning Officers for the Senedd elections in May 2026, together with certain resources, including the project plan template. 

The guidance has been published in our web-based HTML format, and has been updated to reflect the new legislative provisions set out in the Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025.  We have worked closely with colleagues in Welsh Government, Association of Electoral Administrators, Wales and the Electoral Management Board, Wales in the development of this guidance.

In addition, we are finalising a set of animated guides to support those who want to participate in the elections with the completion of nomination papers. These resources can be used to complement your briefings and local guidance to candidates, agents and parties. We will notify you through the bulletin when they’re available.

We will be following our usual process for ordering polling station handbooks for the May 2026 polls. An order form link will be circulated in December, with orders finalised in January, for delivery in March 2026.

If you have any queries or need any further support, please contact the Wales team on [email protected].  

Candidates and Agents guidance

Our candidates and agents guidance for Senedd elections which we published in September has been updated to reflect the provisions relating to candidate disqualification as set out in the Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025.

Reminder

Please ensure your team are signed up to the EA bulletin ahead of the Senedd election, so we can share any further updates with you. 

2025 canvass - information about collection of electoral registration data

As you know, each year the Commission collects electoral registration data from EROs following the annual canvass and the publication of the revised electoral registers. This data plays an important role in our reporting on electoral registration in Great Britain and helps us to demonstrate how canvass processes have been working in practice.  

We will be asking for the same canvass data as in 2024, which will be available in your EMS systems as usual.  

We will be in touch by email at the start of December to request the data and provide instructions on how to generate the report.

If you are planning to delay the publication of your revised register, please let us know at [email protected].

We would like to thank you in advance for your support with this work and for the time taken to supply data to us.