Two Plaid Cymru candidates for the local council elections have been reported to the police for allegedly failing to follow Electoral Commission rules on the printing and publishing of election leaflets. It is understood that the leaflets for the two candidates Colin Jones and Dyfrig Thomas did not contain a promoted by ‘address’, which a Welsh labour spokesperson told us is against Electoral Commission rules. A Welsh Labour representative told Llanelli Online that they have reported the incident to Dyfed Powys-Police and have asked that the leaflets are not delivered and are destroyed. The spokesperson said that they were awaiting a response from the police and from the Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, Mark James.
Llanelli Online sent a request for information to Sean Rees, Plaid Cymru’s campaign manager but at the time of publishing this article he was not available for comment.
It is understood that there may be more leaflets, where the address has been omitted. If this is the case then Plaid Cymru may face a fine and may be ordered to destroy the leaflets.
Plaid Cymru’s Campaign Manager Sean Rees has accused Labour of also using leaflets without an imprint. Llanelli Online was sent a leaflet (pic) for Welsh Labour’s Louvain Roberts, which Sean Rees claims does not have an address. We contacted Welsh Labour and we were told that this leaflet was an old leaflet used when Louvain Robvberts was not legally considered as a candidate. The spokesperson went on to say that the leaflet used following the the candidate’s selection has an imprint. Sean Rees insists that the leaflet has been used and says that it has been documented and that correspondence has been sent.
Llanelli Online has asked for clarification from Plaid Cymru but we have been told that they do not wish to make any further comment.
We asked if there was evidence that the old leaflet had been used recently. We did not receive any evidence to support the claim.
We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
