Labour's 60-year stay in Penarth (From Penarth Times)

Labour's 60-year stay in Penarth

The Cardiff South and Penarth seat has been in Labour hands since 1945.

Former Labour prime minister James Callaghan held the seat from 1945 to 1987.

He was followed by Alun Michael who is fighting for the seat for a fifth time.

In 2001 he held the seat with a 34.4 % majority.

Last time out, Labour won 56.2 % of the vote, the Tories took 21.8 %, the Lib Dems 12.8 % and others 9.2 %.

In 1998 Alun Michael became Secretary of State for Wales and in 1999 became Wales' first First Minister in the National Assembly.

The constituency includes two very distinct areas, in two local authorities, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cardiff South contains the traditionally working-class areas of Grangetown, Butetown and Splott.

No area of Wales has undergone a greater transformation in recent years than Cardiff South and Penarth.

Millions of pounds of public and private money has been invested in the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay since the late 1980s.

The area is also home to the National Assembly and the Wales Millennium Centre which opened in November 2004.

Next to the bay is Butetown, one of Wales' poorest areas and also home to one of the oldest ethnic minority populations in Britain.

According to the 2001 census, the total population of the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency is 88,235.

Of those 7.5 % of those are aged 75 and over, 9.3 % can speak Welsh and 9.2 % are from a non-white Ethnic group.

79.4 % were born in Wales.

67.5 % are Christian and 4.1 % are Muslim.

The list of candidates for this year's election are Alun Michael (Labour), Victoria Green (Conservative), Gavin Cox (Liberal Democrats), John Matthews (Green), Jason Toby (Plaid Cymru), David Bartlett (Socialist Alternative) and Andrew Taylor (Independent).

More candidates may be added to this list up to the deadline for nominations on April 19.

People living in Dinas Powys vote for candidates in the Vale of Glamorgan constituency.

The candidates standing in the election on May 5 are:

Alun Cairns (Conservative)

Mark Hooper (Liberal Democrats)

Karl-James Langford (Liberal)

Paul Mules (Socialist Labour Party)

Barry Shaw (Plaid Cymru)

John Smith (Labour)

Richard Suchorzewski (UKIP)

This list is not complete until April 19.