Ceredigion By-election, 2000 Article Index for
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Ceredigion By-election, 2000




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 February 3 . Plaid Cymru retained the seat comfortably, with the Liberal Democrats taking second in a seat they had previously held - and would win again in 2005 .


RESULTS


  party Plaid Cymru
  candidate Simon Thomas
  votes 10,716
  percentage 428
  change +11


  party Liberal Democrats (UK)
  candidate Mark Williams
  votes 5,768
  percentage 230
  change +65


  party Conservative Party (UK)
  candidate Paul Davies
  votes 4,138
  percentage 165
  change +16


  party Labour Party (UK)
  candidate Maria Battle
  votes 3,612
  percentage 144
  change -99


  party United Kingdom Independence Party
  candidate John Bufton
  votes 487
  percentage 19
  change ''N/A''


  party Independent Green
  candidate John Davies
  votes 289
  percentage 12
  change ''N/A''


  party Independent (politician)
  candidate Martin Shipton
  votes 55
  percentage 02
  change ''N/A''




  percentage 460


  winner Plaid Cymru



GENERAL ELECTION RESULT, 1997

  title General Election 1997 : Ceredigion


  party Plaid Cymru
  candidate Cynog Dafis
  votes 16,728
  percentage 4162
  change +1067


  party Labour Party (UK)
  candidate Robert (Hag) Harris
  votes 9,767
  percentage 2430
  change +573


  party Liberal Democrats (UK)
  candidate Dai Davies
  votes 6,616
  percentage 1646
  change -1003


  party Conservative Party (UK)
  candidate Dr Felix Aubel
  votes 5,983
  percentage 1488
  change -908


  party Referendum Party
  candidate John Leaney
  votes 1,092
  percentage 271
  change +271


  votes 6,961
  percentage 1732
  change +494


  votes 40,186
  percentage 7390
  change -405


  winner Plaid Cymru
  swing 247