WITH less than a week left to register for voters and the Welsh Assembly now officially dissolved, here is your guide to the upcoming elections in the Cardiff South and Penarth area.

Voters have until Monday April 18, to register, or April 19 for postal votes and April 26 for proxy votes.

Then, on Thursday May 5 voters across the constituency will be heading off to their local polling station - a venue that will be disclosed via polling cards.

In the Assembly elections voters cast two votes, one for a candidate in the constituency and another for a party on a separate ballot paper. The second vote is to pick the Assembly's regional AMs who are determined through the vote itself, by their party's share of the vote and by how many AMs from that party have already been elected.

In the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency your candidates are

Labour's Vaughan Gething, who has represented the constituency since 2011, is running again for the seat this year. He will face off against Plaid Cymru's Dr Dafydd Trystan Davies, Conservative Ben Grey, Liberal Democrat Nigel Howells, Ukip candidate Hugh Hughes and Anthony Slaughter, who is running for the Wales Green Party.

Cardiff South and Penarth also falls within the South Wales Central region, where 65 candidates have been put forward from 12 parties – more AMs than are sitting in the entire Assembly – as well as one independent for the four regional seats.

Plaid Cymru are fielding 12 candidates, including the party’s leader Leanne Wood, while eight each are running for the Liberal Democrats and the Welsh Trade Unions and Socialist Coalition. The Conservatives have put forward six, including party leader Andrew RT Davies, while the Welsh Green party and the Monster Raving Loony Party have each nominated five.

Labour, Ukip Wales, the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, the Women’s Equality Party and the Welsh Communist Party have all put forward four names. Freedom to Choose is running one candidate while Jonathan Bishop is running as an independent candidate.

Voters will also have the chance to pick their next Police and Crime Commissioner on May 5. Labour's Alun Michael, who won the role when it was introduced in 2012, is running again this year, and will face off against Independent candidate Mike Baker, Conservative Tim Davies, Plaid Cymru's Linet Purcell and Liberal Democrat Judith Woodman.