The residents of Carmarthenshire have voted unanimously to keep the Leader of Carmarthenshire Labour and to unseat the Leader of Carmarthenshire Plaid Cymru.
Emlyn Dole lost out to a member of his own party by only 7 votes. Rob James won impressively along with another Labour candidate despite the Independents taking a combined 30% of the votes.
Mr Dole who had been in the news with the controversial knocking down of barns as well as issues over Parc Howard may be paying the price for those historic incidents. The unions had also criticised Mr Dole for being out of touch with the employees of Carmarthenshire County Council. https://walesnewsonline.com/union-incredulous-at-claims-made-by-leader-of-carmarthenshire-plaid-cymru-in-interview/
The Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price had said in the news today that Labour had not made an impact in Carmarthenshire. It is hard to reconcile that comment given that a number of Plaid seats fell and others came close to falling.
Seasoned political commentator Gwynoro Jones attributed the Labour success to Mark Drakeford’s positioning of Welsh Labour as the national party for Wales with Plaid Cymru reduced to a nodding dog in partnership. Mr Jones said that he had campaigned in the 1960’s to see the labour party take on the identity and position it is in now.
Mr Price may have to do some naval gazing when the full results are known.
Tactically both Plaid and labour may have made errors in putting candidates against each other within certain wards.
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