It looks like stalemate in the Welsh election overnight counting row with returning officers in the North unlikely to back down despite public pressure from politicians and the Presiding Officer.
It’s up to individual returning officers to decide whether or not to count overnight on May 5th or the following day. Most have opted for through-the-night counting apart from those in the North.
The Assembly’s Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas had previously written to the Electoral Commission urging it to put pressure on returning officers to count overnight.
Then over the weekend it emerged he’d written directly to the returning officer responsible for the North Wales electoral region, Denbighshire’s Chief Executive, Mohammed Mehmet.
Lord Elis-Thomas then took to the airwaves to highlight the fact that all parties backed overnight counting.
All this to coincide with a meeting of returning officers being held today (Monday 11th April).
A spokesman for Mohammed Mehmet said today’s meeting wasn’t going to ‘make a decision’ because ‘a decision has already been made by the North Wales returning officers.’
The question of timing will almost certainly be raised in the meeting but it seems that barring a major change of mind, the returners are not for turning.
UPDATE 1710 The meeting of the Electoral Commission and the 5 regional returning officers has now ended and contrary to what I said in the last sentence above, the question of timing was, I’m told, not even discussed.
Mohammed Mehmet’s spokesman has just told me that ‘the position of the North Wales returning officers remains the same as it was.’ In other words that counting in the North will take place on May 6th.
ITVAdrian 
Two questions:
1) why do they count in the day, surely it is not a cost issue, as doesn’t it take as long to count vote be it 6am or 6pm!.
So what is the reason?
2) why are politicians raising this now, less than a month from the elections. Surely this should have been discussed much earlier!