With the vote tied at 29-29, the Senedd was adjourned to a later date. Plaid is the second party with 12 seats, the Conservatives are on 11, Ukip on seven and Lib Dems on one.
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Sole remaining Liberal Democrat AM Kirsty Williams voted for Carwyn Jones leaving the vote tied at 29-29. “They took the decision not to pursue that option and were not prepared to give the process of negotiation any further time”.
She said: ‘Since that time, and as far as Plaid Cymru is aware, there have been no formal discussions, agreements or deals pursued between any party’. “I was not re-elected to support a “a ragtag coalition made up of Ukip assembly members who at the moment can’t even agree with each other”, said Williams”.
If Ms Wood had won the vote would she really have gone into a coalition government with the Conservatives and Ukip?
Labour has hit out at Plaid Cymru’s tactics, accusing Ms Wood of “prancing about wanting to be First Minister” without having a programme for government that could attract majority support.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 prescribes that a first minister must be elected within 28 days of polling day or another election must be called, giving parties until the end of 1 June to end the deadlock.
Ms Wood today insisted the chaos was Labour’s fault.
Ms Wood said putting her own name forward as First Minister was “normal parliamentary protocol” and insisted Mr Jones was informed yesterday.
Welsh Labour’s Alun Davies said: “Plaid Cymru have just fought an election campaign spending eight weeks saying they’d never do a deal with Ukip or the Tories”.
On Wednesday, Labour accused Plaid of doing a deal with the Welsh Conservatives and UKIP – something which Plaid denied.
After last week’s Assembly election Labour was left with 29 seats, not enough for a majority. “Certainly, I sense an appetite for a new kind of collaborative Welsh politics, and would welcome further discussions to build on those which led to today’s vote”.
He turned his back on Westminster and quit as MP for Ogmore, triggering a by-election which Labour held comfortably on 5 May, and was elected Assembly Member for Ogmore instead.
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“What is unbelievable is the hypocritical behaviour of Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood”, said Shadow Welsh Secretary Nia Griffith.
