2000 Ceredigion by-election

The Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Ceredigion, Cynog Dafis, was unexpectedly elected to the National Assembly for Wales in May 1999 and decided to give up his seat in the House of Commons in order to concentrate on his work in the Assembly. By accepting the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on 10 January 2000, he formally vacated his seat.

Plaid Cymru selected Simon Thomas, who had been their Director of Policy and responsible for writing their manifestos for the 1997 general election and 1999 Assembly election. Labour, who had come second in the previous general election, chose a local social worker, Maria Battle.

The election campaign was dominated by the issue of European Objective 1 funding. The constituency was part of the area of Wales that was granted Objective One status in 1999, but under European rules the funding had to be matched by a minimum of 25% from other sources, including private funding and resources from central and local government. Plaid Cymru, Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians demanded this funding be made available solely from central government in addition to the block grant already paid to the Welsh Assembly by the UK Treasury, and the chief reporter for Wales on Sunday newspaper Martin Shipton stood as a single-issue candidate demanding 'Match Funding now'. The Labour administration in the Welsh Assembly insisted that such a demand misrepresented the resourcing of Objective 1 programmes.

Polling day in the by-election was 3 February. Plaid Cymru retained the seat comfortably, with the Liberal Democrats taking second in a seat they had previously held from 1974 until 1992 – and would win again in 2005.

Electoral history

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1997: Ceredigion

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Robert (Hag) Harris	9,767	24.3
		Dai Davies	6,616	16.5
		Felix Aubel	5,983	14.9
		John Leaney	1,092	2.7
Majority			6,961	17.3
Turnout			40,186	73.9
Registered electors			54,378
	hold		Swing	+2.5

Result

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

2000 Ceredigion by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Mark Williams	5,768	23.0
		Paul Davies	4,138	16.5
		Maria Battle	3,612	14.4
		John Bufton	487	1.9
	Independent Green – Save the World Climate	John Davies	289	1.2
	Wales on Sunday – Match Funding Now	Martin Shipton	55	0.2
Majority			4,948	19.8
Turnout			25,143	46.0
Registered electors			55,025
	hold		Swing	-2.7

External links

• Campaign literature from the by-election