Dear First Minister and Llywydd,

A longstanding friend was born and brought up in Wales. A Welsh speaker, she is a recently retired rural GP in West Wales. She is intelligent, well informed and politically interested. But as our conversation turned to Welsh politics, it was clear (by her own admission) that whilst she knew that our electoral system was changing, she had very little (or even no) idea as to how the new system would work. D’Hondt (name and concept) meant absolutely nothing to her.

Her lack of understanding of the changes to the Senedd, and the way AMs will be elected seems to be widespread. This should be of deep concern to all of us involved in Welsh politics, especially if we champion democracy. With average turnout at Senedd elections of no more than 50 per cent, one of the stated aims of the changes was to improve democratic participation. The widespread ignorance of the changes (observation and NOT a criticism of individuals) suggests a serious breakdown in communications between politicians and electorate.

I expressed concern about the new system in this column almost three years ago. To me there was a conspicuous lack of discussion and scrutiny. It generated some limited interest at the time. More recently, others have woken up to the magnitude of the changes and of course the costs involved.

Between your parties, you command a “super-majority” in the Senedd, and were able to pass the changes into law. Fair enough, that is the way our system works. But there is room for debate as to whether there was a genuine democratic mandate either for Senedd expansion and/or the new electoral system. Some might argue that these changes should have been put to a referendum, or at least in a manifesto prior to an election.

The irony is that some in your parties were quick to describe long overdue Boundary Commission changes (totally independent), as attempted gerrymandering by the last Conservative Government. “Pot calling kettle” comes to mind!

It is a matter of fact that the Welsh Conservatives (my party) voted against these changes and continue to oppose them. But unless the current Senedd falls prior to next May’s elections, the reality is that we will elect next year’s Senedd under the new system.

It is difficult to find exact costs of all this, but it looks like modification of the Senedd will be at least £4 million, with ongoing additional annual costs of at least £13 million. That means that on a recurring basis Wales can’t afford 1300 hip/knee replacements each year, or 2600 primary school places each year, or we lose the world class Stroke Unit at Bronglais. It will be interesting to see how much this comes up in the campaign next year; I suspect quite a lot.

At very least, with taxes at an all-time high, the cost of living crisis, very long NHS waits and the threat of rural school closures, Welsh voters should and will be demanding much better Welsh Government delivery of public services, infrastructure development etc. Put bluntly, if these changes don’t deliver, they will simply be seen as a gravy train.

But for those of us who believe in democracy, the biggest worry is the widespread lack of understanding of the new system. With barely five months to the 2026 election, it is incumbent on all Welsh politicians to overcome this. And with the greatest of respect, you both bear particular responsibility, because of your roles in the Senedd, and because you are senior players in the two parties (Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru) that imposed these changes.

I appreciate that money is tight, but perhaps there needs to be an advertising campaign. Importantly that must be (and be seen to be) totally politically neutral.