POLLING stations have closed and counting is underway in the Welsh Assembly election.

Ballot boxes from across south Powys are being rushed to the Royal Welsh Showground, near Builth Wells, where counting takes place and the winner of the Brecon and Radnorshire constituency seat will be declared.

Earlier this evening staff at the Guildhall polling station in the centre of Brecon reported a "steady trickle" of voters but said they didn’t believe as many had come through the doors as had during last year’s UK general election.

Last May more than 73% of Brecon and Radnorshire residents cast their ballots as the Conservatives captured the constituency from the Liberal Democrats.

Across the UK turnout was 66.1% but in contrast usually only around 40% of registered voters take part in Welsh Assembly elections - though the figure is usually around the 50% mark in Brecon and Radnorshire.

Last May’s general election result, one of a number of Conservative gains across Wales, has seen the party talking up its chances of also capturing the Welsh Assembly seat which has been held by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams since the body was established in 1999.

At the polling station in Brecon, where voters were also casting ballots in the Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner election, Lib Dem activist Jem Park admitted the 2015 result had been a motivating factor in her supporting the campaign.

Ms Park, who was acting as a teller making a record of who has voted so party workers can target any potential supporters yet to arrive at the polling booth, said: "I’m very disappointed we have a Conservative MP, so that has sort of lit a fire."

Ms Park, who said her husband works for the Lib Dems, also believed it has had a well received campaign: "He’s been doing a lot of canvassing and door knocking and a lot of people have been very positive towards him, but you never know which way the result is going to go."

Among the small number of voters the Express spoke to was a mum-of-two from Brecon who asked not to be named.

Though she declined to say who she had voted for she admitted the general election result had influenced how she cast her ballot: "I live in the centre of Brecon but haven’t had as many people knocking my door as normal.

"To be honest I don’t want the Conservatives so I have voted tactically.

"The result from last year has had a strong baring on how I have voted this time. It would be interesting to know how many others have voted tactically because of last year’s result."

Matthew Roberts-Howe, of Brecon, who also said he didn’t want to reveal how he’d voted, said he felt the Welsh election and the police and crime commissioner poll had been overshadowed by next month’s referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the European Union.

He said: "I think the EU referendum is more interesting as it’s new but for the Assembly elections the parties are just repeating the same messages from previous elections."

Another voter, who asked not to give his name, said he had voted for Ukip in the Brecon and Radnorshire poll and for the Conservatives on the Mid and West Wales regional ballot - by which four Assembly Members will be elected.

He said: "I voted Conservative as I want Labour out. They are destroying education and it is all in the disguise of the Welsh language. They should drop it and spend more money on education."

Polls ahead of the election have predicted Labour, which won 30 of the 60 Assembly seats at the last election in 2011, will remain the largest party but will be short of a majority.

There are 40 constituency seats across Wales, elected via the first past the post system where the candidate with the most votes wins, and five regions that return a total of 20 ’list AMs’.

The list seat AMs are nominated by their parties - or as independents - on the regional ballot which is elected using a form of proportional representation.

The Mid and West Wales regional result will be announced, in Llanelli, later on Friday morning while the Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner results will also be counted in Llanelli and announced on Sunday.