Leader is forced to sort out Plaid candidate selection row in Llanelli
PLAID Cymru leader Leanne Wood had to travel to Llanelli last week to placate local party members after the candidate they wanted to stand for Parliament was ruled ineligible.
Sean Rees, the party’s Llanellibased campaigns officer, was selected by Plaid members living in the constituency to oppose Labour’s Nia Griffith at the general election on June 8.
But Mr Rees should not have been up for selection because he is not on Plaid’s list of approved candidates.
All major parties insist that before candidates can be selected to stand in individual seats, they must have been approved by a central body like the national executive committee.
A Plaid Cymru spokeswoman said that Mr Rees had applied to be on the approved list, but had not been interviewed at the time of the Llanelli selection meeting last week.
It is understood that Mr Rees was less than 10 votes ahead of the second candidate, charity director Mari Arthur, who will now fight the general election in the constituency.
The Plaid spokeswoman said: “There was some consternation in the local party when it became clear that Sean couldn’t be approved as the candidate, and Leanne thought it was the right thing to do to go down to Llanelli and explain the situation to party members face to face.
“Sean, who is a very hardworking campaigns officer, is, of course, disappointed, but he’s now putting his efforts into winning a seat on Carmarthenshire County Council in the Glanymor ward.”
Ms Arthur was raised in Trimsaran and, following a career in education, international marketing and business strategy, she is now the director of Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales – the national charity for sustainable development in Wales.
She said: “I am delighted to be standing as the Plaid Cymru candidate in my home town of Llanelli and I am privileged to have the opportunity to make a real difference to the town and its people.
“My emotional attachment to the area and my experience of running successful businesses will make me a strong voice for Llanelli in Westminster and, combined with the support of our dedicated local campaigners, I am confident that we will be able to give the people of Llanelli its first ever Plaid Cymru MP, to stand up to the Tories in Westminster.”
Plaid AM Adam Price, who represents the neighbouring constituency of Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said: “Mari will be an outstanding voice for Llanelli and Wales and her wealth of experience from business and policymaking, coupled with her obvious attachment to the local area, makes her the ideal person to represent Llanelli in Parliament.”
In the 2015 general election, Ms Griffith, currently Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary, had a majority of 7,095 over her Plaid rival.