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<\/p>\nVoter turnout in Merthyr Tydfil has been among the lowest in Wales for years<\/p>\n
Wales Online<\/strong><\/p>\n 20:30, 14 Apr 2026<\/p>\n I’m born and bred in Merthyr so I find the apathy highly frustrating(Image: WalesOnline)<\/p>\n There\u2019s a problem in Merthyr Tydfil and it\u2019s not a new one.<\/p>\n Voter turnout here has been among the lowest in Wales for years.<\/p>\n In the last Senedd election in 2021 only 46.6% of people across Wales voted.<\/p>\n In the Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency it was 34.8% \u2013 the lowest in Wales.<\/p>\n With the 2026 election coming up I went out to speak to people in the town to try find out why.<\/p>\n The first stop was the town centre.<\/p>\n It was 9am on a Friday morning there were plenty of people around but of all the people we stopped not one wanted to answer our questions. We were told “no thanks” more than anything else.<\/p>\n So we changed tack and headed up the A470 to Trago Mills where there plenty of people popping in for a coffee or, more specifically, to pick up lawn mowers. Only one of the 15 or so people we approached agreed to speak.<\/p>\n They didn’t seem to know there was an election on at all but did say they hadn’t voted previously and weren’t up to date with the changes coming for May 7.<\/p>\n Our third stop was Cyfarthfa Park. On a gloriously sunny, if windy, day the main passers-by here were dog walkers, young parents, and elderly people.<\/p>\n It was here we had most success but still no-one wanted to be named or filmed.<\/p>\n Two women in their 80s agreed to speak. As the pair sat on a bench, just opposite the lake, they told me they\u2019ve voted Welsh Labour<\/a> all their lives \u2013 not surprising given this is historically a Labour heartland \u2013 but now they\u2019re not even sure if they\u2019ll vote at all.<\/p>\n They said they feel “lost” with the new system for Senedd Cymru elections. On top of that they feel let down by Labour.<\/p>\n But at the same time they\u2019re worried about what parties like Reform UK or Plaid Cymru<\/a> might do.<\/p>\n So they\u2019re stuck, they explained, feeling unclear on who to trust and unsure if it\u2019s even worth it.<\/p>\n A 22-year-old man had a very different take. He told me he doesn\u2019t vote because “the Welsh Government<\/a> doesn\u2019t do anything \u2013 it\u2019s all the UK Government”.<\/p>\n When I explained what the Welsh Government is actually responsible for \u2013 like the NHS<\/a> in Wales, schools, housing, and transport \u2013 he was genuinely shocked.<\/p>\n No-one had ever explained it to him before.<\/p>\n Then I spoke to a man in his 40s who said he\u2019s voted in Senedd elections for years and this time he\u2019s planning to back Reform UK.<\/p>\n He said the Welsh Government has “no common sense” pointing to things like the 20mph speed limit and Wales being a “Nation of Sanctuary”. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here<\/a><\/p>\n I asked why those stuck out to him. I explained there had been a 25% decrease in roadside injuries, according to early Welsh Government data, showing that lives have been saved by the default speed limit being lowered.<\/p>\n Additionally the spending on the Nation of Sanctuary scheme is just a tiny fraction of the Welsh Government’s \u00a327bn annual budget.<\/p>\n For him,it all comes back to one thing: he believes Prime Minister Keir Starmer holds the real power anyway.<\/p>\n I\u2019m born and bred in Merthyr. I love the place but it\u2019s frustrating seeing people switch off from voting and also politics more generally.<\/p>\n There was one thing everyone I spoke to agreed on. They\u2019re not happy about plans to increase the Senedd from 60 to 96 members.<\/p>\n People talked about the cost, they said they weren\u2019t asked, and many said they don\u2019t understand the new voting system at all.<\/p>\n That confusion matters. Studies have shown that when people don\u2019t understand how voting works they\u2019re much less likely to take part and, honestly, this hits home.<\/p>\n What we\u2019re seeing now isn\u2019t just apathy.<\/p>\n It\u2019s years of people not being given the knowledge or confidence to take part.<\/p>\n I’m 24 and I voted five years ago when I was 19. Just out of sixth form college I hadn’t been armed with the knowledge by school, or college, but my mam.<\/p>\n The only political education I remember in school<\/a> was one lesson on the Merthyr Rising in 1831. Important history \u2013 but it was 195 years ago. I wasn’t taught about how politics actually works today, what the Senedd does, or why voting matters.<\/p>\n Merthyr\u2019s low turnout isn\u2019t just a statistic \u2013 it\u2019s a warning.<\/p>\n Because if people feel confused, ignored, and fed up they won\u2019t vote \u2013 and that\u2019s when democracy starts to have a real problem.<\/p>\n What I found wasn\u2019t people being lazy or uninterested \u2013 it was people feeling confused, fed up and, in many cases, completely disconnected from politics.<\/p>\n And that really worries me before May 7.<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news<\/strong> updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voter turnout in Merthyr Tydfil has been among the lowest in Wales for years Wales Online 20:30, 14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,18113,285,11653,173270,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-894127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-merthyr-tydfil","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-premium","13":"tag-senedd-election","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116404850616973972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Joseph-Gough-went-to-Merthyr-to-ask-people-about-voting-in-the-Senedd-election.jpg\")
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