Mark Pack

WalesOnline reports:

THE Electoral Commission expressed its “regret” yesterday as it admitted providing the wrong information to one of the Liberal Democrat AMs disqualified from office …

Mr Roberts said he was given incorrect information by the Electoral Commission, whose official guidance for candidates said he could not stand if, at the time of the nomination, he held an office which was mentioned in the National Assembly for Wales (Disqualification) Order 2006.

The Order that the Electoral Commission referred to was not the most up-to-date, and did not include the Valuation Tribunal for Wales as one of the bodies. That was added last year.

Additionally, powerpoint presentations given by the Commission at the party conferences earlier this year referred to the 2006 document.

Yesterday, after the CPS announced there would be no charges, a spokesman said: “We were told by the Welsh Government of the updated Assembly disqualification order on March 10 and our guidance in English was updated the very next day. There was an error in that we did not update the guidance in Welsh.

“We regret that and we have reviewed our processes to make sure that it does not happen again.”