We’re ending our coverage of the last day of the campaigning now, before the Senedd election on Thursday.

Voters will finally head to the polls for what is likely to be the most consequential election to Cardiff Bay since the National Assembly for Wales was established in 1999.

There are 16 new constituencies, an increase of 60 elected members to 96, and major reforms rolled out to the way the Senedd is elected. Results will come from Friday.

On Wednesday, the final day of campaigning, we had breaking news come in about Cardiff Council confirming that more than 1,300 people did not receive their postal voting packs in time for Thursday.

Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan spoke at a Labour event and declined to back PrimeMinister Sir Keir Starmer if her party loses control of Wales.

Meanwhile, Conservative Welsh leader Darren Millar insisted his party can win “at least one seat in every constituency” and the election “isn’t over yet”.

Reform UK’s Welsh leader Dan Thomas told voters the party can make history by becoming the first right-wing party to win a devolved Senedd election, alongside a rally with Nigel Farage on Tuesday.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said placards had been “vandalised”, and the party told us “dozens” of them were damaged in Anglesey and some were taken from people’s gardens.

Welsh Liberal Democrats leader Jane Dodds told us she hopes she is not the only elected member from her party to sit in the Senedd after tomorrow. She said she does not see the size of the new constituency - Brycheiniog Tawe Nedd - as a challenge.

Welsh Green leader Anthony Slaughter warned his party's support of a new government depends on seeing its objectives delivered, adding “urgent action” is needed to address issues. England and Wales party leader Zack Polanski arrived in Cardiff for a final rally, saying the party had an “opportunity to make history in Wales”.

Thank you for following our coverage. We will return tomorrow for another day of coverage on the BBC News Website, as well as BBC Radio Wales and BBC Wales Today.

Image source, PA Media

Political jeopardy in the airpublished at 19:02 BST 6 May

19:02 BST 6 May

Gareth Lewis
Wales political editor

This has been a Senedd election campaign like no other.

Not because of a standout moment, a killer putdown delivered by one politician to another, or even a policy to knock your socks off - although parties might dispute the latter.

It is a campaign that has had something that previous ones have lacked - political jeopardy.

Labour's 27-year reign in Cardiff Bay and century-long dominance of Welsh politics could be coming to an end, with Plaid Cymru and Reform ending the campaign as they began by vying for top spot.

If change does come, then we are still not sure exactly what it will look like.

Who will be biggest party? And if there is no immediate or obvious route to form a government, what sort of negotiations and deals might follow?

Wales could be on the verge of political history but its political future is still to be decided.

Iolo Cheung
BBC Wales

Zack Polanski has told supporters the Greens would "fight for a fairer Wales" at final rally in Cardiff before polling on Thursday.

The leader of the Green Party of England and Wales declined to speak to the BBC as he arrived at a city church, but told the audience of around 150 in the hall that the party had an “opportunity to make history in Wales”.

Labour had “not treated Wales seriously” since devolution, he said, and the Greens would make sure people’s “voices were heard”.

Taking to the stage, their leader in Wales Anthony Slaughter said that “this is our moment”.

“This victory in the Senedd elections will be the start of something bigger,” he said.

“We are going to get Greens elected to the Senedd, because Wales needs our voice in that building.”

Polanski added that the Greens would fight for the environment, social justice and a “fairer Wales”.

“You will have Green Senedd members who are transparent and accountable… who haven’t taken money from corporate lobbyists.”

Among its manifesto pledges, Reform would build the M4 relief road around Newport, ditch Wales' 20mph default speed limit, ban onshore wind and solar farms, cap annual council tax rises to 5% and cut a penny off income tax.

Compare parties' policies here

Image source, Getty Images

Health remains one of the biggest political issues in Wales, taking up a huge share of the Welsh Government’s budget while the NHS continues to face intense pressure.

Dr Iona Collins, chair of the British Medical Association’s Welsh Council, joined James Williams on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Wednesday where she called for more investment in prevention and GP services.

Dr Collins says more money should go into public health and general practice so problems can be treated earlier before patients need costly hospital care.

She describes working in the NHS as “awful”, saying many doctors feel the system no longer supports them to deliver the care patients deserve, and believes the NHS has become too focused on targets and key performance indicators rather than healthcare delivery itself.

Dr Collins added that decision-makers needed to spend more time seeing conditions on the “shop floor”.

Wales' Green party would ban no fault evictions and impose a one-year rent freeze to help householders, according to its manifesto, while replacing council tax with tax based on land value rather than property.Compare parties' policies here

David Deans
BBC Wales politics reporter

It's not an exaggeration to say that, in modern times, we have never known a Welsh election campaign like this one.

Not since 1922 has Labour lost a Welsh domestic parliamentary election, whether that was for Westminster or, since 1999, for Cardiff Bay.

But in 2026 Labour's dominance over Welsh politics is under serious threat from an old rival, Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, and a new one, Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

Labour faces losing control of the Welsh government, an institution they've controlled since the start - unless Eluned Morgan can pull off a shock.

Opinion polling suggests that Plaid and Reform will be battling to come first - preluding probable discussions about how whoever that is will be able to form a government in a system that makes it hard to win outright.

Unless someone can pull ahead and win a majority, Friday's results are unlikely to be the end of the story.

Image source, Getty Images

The M4 relief road would be built under a Welsh Conservative-led government in Cardiff Bay, according to its manifesto, but it's not the only party making that commitment ahead of the Senedd election.

First proposed in 1991, a relief road to deal with the daily problem of too many cars trying to get through Newport's tunnels was ditched by former Labour first minister Mark Drakeford in 2019.

Compare parties' policies here

Tamara Kovacevic
BBC Verify senior journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Speaking at Reform UK’s final pre-election rally in Merthyr Tydfil on Tuesday evening, party leader Nigel Farage told the audience: "We have the most expensive energy prices in the world."

He didn't specify which type of energy he was talking about: electricity or gas, domestic or industrial.

It is correct that in the latest available figures, external from 2024, the UK had the most expensive industrial electricity among 32 members of the International Energy Agency (IEA) - an organisation which includes 24 European countries as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey and the United States.

The UK’s domestic electricity prices, external, including tax, were the second highest among the countries for which data was published in 2024, after Germany.

However, the UK’s industrial gas prices, including tax, were lower than in a number of other IEA countries, including France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Similarly, UK domestic gas prices, including tax, were lower than in France, Germany, Italy and several other European countries.

Let's turn our attention to Plaid Cymru's manifesto pledges which include universal childcare for children from nine months to aged four and £10 weekly payments for children aged up to six in low income households.

Compare parties' policies here

Image source, Getty Images

To answer this question, we need to look at devolution, which refers to the transfer of powers from one level of decision-making to a level which is closer to the voter.

In 1997 people in Wales voted narrowly in favour of moving certain responsibilities from Westminster to Cardiff Bay, previously known as the National Assembly for Wales.

Initially, the assembly's powers were fairly limited, however over the years further responsibilities have made their way down the M4 including full law-making powers in a number of areas such as health, education, transport, rural affairs, and the environment.

The ability to raise and vary certain taxes has also now been transferred to Cardiff, and the national assembly has been renamed as the Welsh Parliament or Senedd Cymru.

Other areas such as defence, benefits, foreign affairs and major rail infrastructure remain in Westminster.

Read more here

As we continue our look at the parties' manifesto headlines, the Welsh Lib Dems has said it would seek further powers being devolved from Westminster, giving the Welsh government more control over the nation's rail, prisons and policing.

Compare parties' policies here.

David Deans
BBC Wales politics reporter

The new voting system for the Senedd is more proportional than the system used for the general election, known as first past the post.

There are fewer constituencies but more politicians - 16 constituencies of six Members of the Senedd (MS) each, and they are voted through a mathematical formula which awards parties politicians based on the proportion of the vote.

But it also favours larger parties, according to elections expert Dr Jac Larner, from Cardiff University, giving them a "bonus".

In a blog, external he said it gives an incentive to concentrate support behind the largest party in an ideological grouping.

Two parties each polling at 20% will win, on average, fewer combined seats than a single-party polling at 40%, even though the vote share is identical, he said.

Let's look at the manifestos of each of the six main parties hoping to govern in Wales, starting with Labour.

Welsh leader Eluned Morgan said people with a pressing medical need will be seen within 48 hours as part of its pledges on the NHS, should Labour win the next Senedd election.

Compare parties' policies here

Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds tells the BBC a "day is a long time" and the party is "very confident" ahead of the Senedd election tomorrow.

Last week Wales' political leaders went head to head in a sometimes heated BBC Wales debate.

During it we learned Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Lib Dems and the Greens all rule out working with Reform - but not with each other - in Wales' parliament.

Reform's Dan Thomas challenged all the main parties to publish the full costs of their policies, claiming his were ready - but with just hours to go until today's campaigning ends, his party have yet to publish its own.

And Darren Millar claimed his Welsh Tory party would find extra money for the health service by scrapping extra politicians in Cardiff Bay

You can relive the night's coverage here

There have been a handful of memorable moments caught on camera during the election campaign.

One of them was Reform's deputy Wales leader appearing to change her mind mid-interview over whether a party member should apologise for social media post, after hearing Nigel Farage had said there should be an apology.

Prominent Reform member Arron Banks had been accused of questioning the Welshness of a black Plaid Cymru campaigner, and Helen Jenner was given five opportunities to call on him to apologise before her U-turn.

The voting system for the election is changing as part of wider reforms pushed through the Senedd by Labour and Plaid Cymru.

Here are the key changes:

• The number of politicians in the Senedd is increasing from 60 to 96

• In previous Welsh elections, voters had two votes. This time, voters will have one vote in which they pick a party rather than a specific candidate
• Six candidates will be elected to represent each of Wales' 16 new constituencies

Find out more about the new voting system here.

Jane Dodds tells the BBC she hopes she isn't the only Lib Dem elected to the Senedd again.

The Welsh Liberal Democrat leader has had the job of keeping the party going in Wales, helped by the election of David Chadwick as a Lib Dem MP for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe in 2024.

She says success for the party would be "more people in the Senedd".

Dodds says: "I'm a positive, optimistic person, and we're looking forward to getting more seats not just... in mid Wales but in our urban areas as well, making sure that we really do represent the people of Wales from all over Wales.

"I'm hoping it won't just be me next time."

Last week Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan caused a bit of amusement on the campaign trail when she accidentally told Labour members to "vote Plaid Cymru".

In a speech to supporters in Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan, she told the crowd to "vote Welsh Labour in the election next week" before changing to Welsh and saying "pleidleisiwch [vote] Plaid Cymru".

The Welsh Labour leader then corrected herself and said "Plaid Llafur" [Labour Party].

Speaking to ITV Wales after the gaffe, Morgan said: "We're all a little bit exhausted, once you switch into Welsh the word 'Cymru' comes off your lips."