THE fight for the Welsh Assembly is on and candidates and parties are pitching for your votes on May 5.

Electors at the Thursday May 5 poll will have two votes in the Welsh general election to elect the fourth Assembly.

One vote is cast for a candidate standing for the constituency seat while the other is for a party on the regional list.

The Brecon and Radnorshire seat is currently held by Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams, who holds a 5,354 majority over the Conservatives.

The 60 member Assembly is made up of 40 Assembly Members (AMs) who represent constituency seats and who are elected using the first past the post system.

The additional 20 AMs, including four representing the eight constituency seats that make up the the Mid and West Wales electoral region, are elected using a form of proportional representation that aims to reflect support across the region for parties that fail to pick up first past the post constituency seats.

Conservative leader Nick Bourne has led the official opposition in the Senedd to the Labour Plaid Cymru 'One Wales' coalition formed following the 2007 election.

The former university professor has been elected on the regional list at every election since the Assembly's inception in 1999.

Plaid Cymru has also held at least one of the Mid and West Wales seats since 1999 though the party's Nerys Evans, who was elected in 2007, has stood down to instead fight a constituency seat for the party.

Also giving up his Mid and West Wales seat is Labour's Alun Davies. He was elected alongside Joyce Watson in 2007 but has also chosen to try his luck in a constituency. Mrs Watson remains the party's lead candidate.

Parties can nominate up to 12 people on the regional list with candidates ranked in preference order. The top candidate takes the first seat won by the party and the most AMs a single party has ever had elected on the Mid and West Wales seat is three, won by the Conservatives at the 2003 election.

The Assembly Government is responsible for 20 policy areas from health and education to economic development transport and local government.

All previous Assembly terms have been for four years however due to the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition at Westminster agreeing a fixed five year Parliament the next Assembly will sit for five years so that elections don't clash in 2015.

The parties, and their nominated candidates, contesting the Mid and West Wales regional list:

http://www.welshconservatives.com/&quot">http://www.welshconservatives.com/" target="_blank">Welsh Conservatives 1. Nick Bourne 2. Lisa Francis 3. Ian Christopher Harrison 4. Gareth Ratcliffe 5. Keith John Evans 6. Stephen Thomas Kaye 7. Daniel Nicholas Munford 8. Evan Price

http://www.welshlabour.org.uk/&quot">http://www.welshlabour.org.uk/" target="_blank">Welsh Labour 1. Joyce Watson 2. Rebecca Mary Evans 3. Matthew Dorrance 4.Iqbal Malik

1. William Powell 2. Mark Cole 3. Edward Wilson 4. Steffan John 5. Gemma Bowker

http://www.english.plaidcymru.org/&quot">http://www.english.plaidcymru.org/" target="_blank">Plaid Cymru 1. Simon Thomas 2. Rhys Davies 3. Llewelyn Rhys 4. Ellen ap Gwynn

http://wales.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?id=3325&quot">http://wales.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?id=3325" target="_blank">Green Party 1. Leila Kiersch 2. Marilyn Elson 3. Pat McCarthy 4. Neil Lewis 5. Ken Simpkin 6. Rachael Sweeting

http://www.ukipwales.org/home.html&quot">http://www.ukipwales.org/home.html" target="_blank">UKIP 1. Christine Williams 2. Clive Easton 3. David William Lloyd Rowlands 4. Nicholas Edwin Powell

http://www.bnp.org.uk/&quot">http://www.bnp.org.uk/" target="_blank">BNP 1 .Kay Thomas 2. Watcyn Richards 3. Roger Phillips 4. Gary Tumulty

http://www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk/&quot">http://www.socialist-labour-party.org.uk/" target="_blank">Socialist Labour Party 1. Liz Screen Liz 2. Adam Kelsey 3. Barry Giddings 4. Robert Board

http://www.welshcommunists.org/&quot">http://www.welshcommunists.org/" target="_blank">Welsh Communist Party 1. Catrin Ashton 2. Rick Newnham 3. Barbara Ann Thomas 4. Clive Rolf Eliassen

http://christianpartycymru.co.uk/&quot">http://christianpartycymru.co.uk/" target="_blank">Christian Party (Wales) 1. Jeff Green 2. Adam Bridgman 3. Martin Wiltshire 4. Susan Green

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