At stake in this election:

• 60 seats in the Scottish parliament

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Anthony BLAIR
• Assembly: Wales has a unicameral Scottish parliament with 60 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is hereditary N/A.
• In the Scottish parliament, 40 members are elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 20 members are elected through a party-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** Wales's five electoral regions and be directly elected according to a party list proportional representation system, or "Additional Member System" (AMS). All 60 members of the Welsh Assembly will be elected for four-year terms. Voters for both parliaments will cast two votes - one for the constituency and one for the regional level.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Labour Party
  • Leader: Alun MICHAEL
  • Seats won in this election: 28
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Party of Wales / Plaid Cymru
  • Leader: Dafydd WIGLEY
  • Seats won in this election: 17
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Conservative Party
  • Leader: Rod RICHARDS
  • Seats won in this election: 9
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Liberal Democratic Party
  • Leader: Michael GERMAN
  • Seats won in this election: 6
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 2,937,000 ( 1999 )
• Registered Voters: 2,230,000 ( approx.)