Democracy and Boundary Commission Cymru Cymraeg

Election address: Draft candidate and agent guidance

Welsh Elections Information Platform

Are you thinking of standing as a candidate in the Senedd election on 7 May 2026?

If so, we want to hear from you.

What is an election address?

In each constituency every political party and individual candidate can send a leaflet to voters for free via royal mail

You can find more information on this process here.

For the first time, candidates at this election can also publish their election address online on vote.wales.

You can find out more about vote.wales here.

What we're asking for

We've published draft guidance on how you can submit your election address to vote.wales, and we want you to give us your views.

The guidance outlines:

  • what the Welsh Elections Information Platform (vote.wales) is and what constitutes an election address
  • the process for submitting an election address
  • the deadlines for submission for the Senedd elections

Your feedback will play an important role in ensuring the process is clear, accessible, and robust.

For political parties

We kindly request that the guidance be reviewed by the appropriate members of your organisation, particularly those who will be responsible for submitting your election addresses.

For prospective individual candidates or agents

We kindly request that you review the guidance yourself. You may also want to ask your potential election agent to review the guidance if they will be the one submitting your election address.

Questions

To support your response, we have set out a series of consultation questions below.

Guidance

  • Do you believe the guidance is sufficient to support party members or individual candidates in submitting an election address for publication on the Welsh Elections Information Platform? If not, what additional support would be helpful?

Who can submit an election address

  • Do you agree with the proposed provisions regarding who may submit an election address? Does this align with the individual most likely to be responsible for the Royal Mail freepost leaflet and the submission of the election address?

Provision of email address

  • Do you foresee any issues with the candidate or election agent email address being provided to the Returning Officer and used as the gateway to the online submission process?

Optional free text for accessibility

  • Do you agree with the optional stage allowing written leaflet content to be entered into a free‑text box so that the EMB can publish it in a more accessible webpage format? Do you anticipate making use of this option, and do you foresee any challenges in doing so?

Deadlines

  • Do you agree with the timelines set out in the guidance for the submission of election addresses? In particular, do you agree with the provision of a primary deadline to maximise publication before postal votes are issued, followed by secondary deadlines to ensure later submissions are still included?

Please respond by email to emb@dbcc.gov.wales by Friday 30 January 2026. Should you require clarification or wish to discuss any aspect of the consultation, please contact Mark Pascoe (mark.pascoe@dbcc.gov.wales).

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  1. Candidate and agent guidance
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