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Ex-Abolish the Assembly leader fails to keep party name

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The Abolish the Assembly Party wants the Welsh Parliament scrapped

The former leader of the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party has failed in his attempt to register a new political party under the same name.

Abolish was struck off the electoral register in November after its registration lapsed following an internal row.

It meant the party's new leadership had to apply to have it re-registered for May's Senedd election.

However David Bevan also applied to use the name.

The Electoral Commission has now approved the new leadership's application over that submitted by Mr Bevan.

Explaining the decision, a commission spokeswoman said: "We have approved the registration of the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party which has Richard Suchorzewski as its leader, Ivan Parker as treasurer and Jonathon Harrington as nominating officer.

"We have rejected the second application on the basis that when a party is deregistered, its name is protected for a period of time by law.

"This means that during this time only the previously registered party can apply to use that name.

"Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, de-registered on 4 November 2020, was therefore the only party able to re-register under that name.

"We took the view that the application from the second applicant was not from the previously registered party, and as such refused the application to register under this name."

'We shall be ready'

Abolish has never won a seat in Cardiff Bay but it won 4.4% of the regional list vote at the 2016 election, and the latest Welsh Political Barometer poll suggests the party is currently on course to win four of the 60 seats in May.

Responding to the decision Abolish's leader Richard Suchorzewski said he looked "forward to naming candidates to stand for Abolish in the Welsh Assembly/Senedd elections due on 6th May - or later if its postponed due to the other parties running scared and delaying the election as far into the future as possible.

"We believe there are safe election solutions, however whenever the election is called we shall be ready."

Mr Bevan declined to comment.