6. Statement by the Minister for Finance and Local Government: Local Government Elections

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:23 pm on 10 May 2022.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 4:23, 10 May 2022

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the Minister's statement. I congratulate all councillors elected at the election, whatever party. I know all of them will do their best for their constituents over the next five years. I also believe that a number of Members here are relieved they will not have to keep on declaring an interest every time an item comes up relating to local government.

I'm sure that, when we see turnout for the 16 and 17-year-olds, it'll be lower than that for the general population. What younger people do not understand—just following on from what Llyr Gruffydd raised—is that they cannot use electronic means of voting, when they can use electronic means of paying for goods. They believe people would be more interested in trying to take their money off them than in trying to take their vote off them. Will the Welsh Government look at electronic voting at future elections?

And whilst I welcome that candidates' addresses do not need to be on the ballot paper, why cannot the first part of the postcode be there, e.g. SA6, CF1, SA2, whatever it is, so people can see that the candidate may not live with an address that they're told of, but they can see they live in their area? The one thing that I've found in elections that people are most interested in is not your politics, but where you live.