{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/article-5",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025/article-5.json",
  "legislation": "wsi/2025/864",
  "legislation_title": "The Senedd Cymru (Representation of the People) Order 2025",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/senedd-cymru-representation-of-the-people-order-2025",
  "path": "article/5",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "5",
  "heading": "Manner of voting at Senedd elections",
  "text": "(1) This article applies to determine the manner of voting of a person (“P1”) entitled to vote as an elector at a Senedd election.\n(2) P1 may vote in person at the polling station allotted to P1 under this Order, unless P1 is entitled as an elector to an absent vote at a Senedd election.\n(3) P1 may vote by post if P1 is entitled as an elector to vote by post at a Senedd election.\n(4) Subject to paragraph (5), P1 may vote by proxy if P1 is entitled to vote by proxy at a Senedd election.\n(5) If a ballot paper has not been issued for P1 to vote by proxy, P1 may apply at the polling station allotted to P1 under this Order for a ballot paper to vote in person and vote in person there.\n(6) P1 may vote in person at any polling station in the Senedd constituency for which the election is being held if—\n(a) P1 is not entitled as an elector to an absent vote at the election, but\n(b) P1 cannot reasonably be expected to go in person to polling station allotted to P1 under this Order by reason of P1’s employment on the date of the poll, either as a constable or by a returning officer, for a purpose connected with the election.\n(7) In paragraph (6), the reference to a constable includes a person designated as a community support officer under section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (police powers for civilian staff and volunteers).\n(8) Nothing in the preceding provisions of this article applies to a person (“P2”)—\n(a) to whom section 7 of the 1983 Act (residence: patients in mental hospitals who are not detained offenders or on remand) applies, and\n(b) who is liable, by virtue of any enactment, to be detained in the mental hospital in question,\nwhether P2 is registered by virtue of that provision or not.\n(9) Where paragraph (8) applies, P2 may vote—\n(a) in person, where P2 is granted permission to be absent from the hospital and voting in person does not breach any condition attached to that permission, or\n(b) by post or by proxy, where P2 is entitled as an elector to vote by post or by proxy at the election.\n(10) Nothing in the preceding provisions of this article applies to a person (“P3”) to whom section 7A of the 1983 Act (residence: persons remanded in custody etc.) applies, whether P3 is registered by virtue of that provision or not.\n(11) Where paragraph (10) applies, P3 may only vote by post or by proxy at the election where P3 is entitled as an elector to vote by post or by proxy at the election.\n(12) For the purposes of this Order, a person who is entitled to vote as an elector at a Senedd election is entitled to vote—\n(a) by post if that person is shown in the postal voters lists mentioned in article 8(2) as entitled to vote by post at an election;\n(b) by proxy if that person is shown in the list of proxies mentioned in article 8(3) as entitled to vote by proxy at an election.\n(13) Paragraph (2) does not prevent a person marking a tendered ballot paper in pursuance of rule 50 of Schedule 5 at the polling station allotted to that person.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "Art. 5 in force at 18.7.2025, see art. 1(2)"
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "2002 c. 30. Section 38 was amended by Part 2 of Schedule 17 to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (c. 15); paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 5 to the Police and Justice Act 2006 (c. 48); paragraph 292 of Schedule 16 to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (c. 13); and sections 3 and 38 of, and paragraph 82 of Schedule 1 to, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (c. 3)."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "Section 7 was amended by section 4 of the Representation of the People Act 2000 (c. 2); section 12(1) of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (c. 22); and section 13 of, and paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to, the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (c. 6)."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "Section 7A was inserted by section 5 of the Representation of the People Act 2000 (c. 2). Section 7A was subsequently amended by section 12(2) of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (c. 22), and paragraphs 1 and 3 of Schedule 4 to the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 (c. 6)."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2025/864/article/5",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-28T22:57:06.457930+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}