VOTERS up and down the country will head to the polls next month for the first bumper crop of elections since the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Many contests are set to take place on May 6, dubbed “Super Thursday”, including some that were postponed from last year because of Covid-19.

In Wales, voters will be choosing a new parliament, while residents will also decide who they want to take up the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for their local force.

With the voter registration deadline looming, we've taken a look at what voter turnout was like across Vale of Glamorgan five years ago.

Electoral Commission data shows that at the last Senedd election in 2016, 71,200 people in the constituency were eligible to vote, with 37,800 of them returning valid ballot papers.

That was a turnout of 53.1 per cent, which was higher than the Wales average of 45.4 per cent.

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Around 9,600 postal votes were included in the count, while 132 votes were rejected, which can occur if a paper is not marked properly or has been spoiled.

Including rejected votes, the ballot box turnout in Vale of Glamorgan that year was 53.3 per cent.

Different figures show that 35,500 people in Vale of Glamorgan returned valid votes at the South Wales PCC elections in 2016 – 49.8 per cent of those who were eligible to take part.

Elsewhere in Britain, Scottish voters will also be choosing a new parliament, while people in England will be voting for a mixture of councillors, mayors and police commissioners.

The scale of Super Thursday means that every voter will be able to take part in at least one type of poll, making it the biggest event of its kind outside a general election.

An Electoral Commission spokesperson said: "This May, voters across Great Britain will be going to the polls to vote and choose the people that make decisions which can impact their day to day lives.

"There are several ways for people to vote – you can choose to vote at a polling station, by post, or by appointing someone you trust to vote as a proxy on your behalf."

A YouGov survey carried out on behalf of the Electoral Commission in February found that the majority of voters would feel safe attending a polling station despite current public health challenges.

However, it added that absent voting is likely to play an important role in delivering elections during the pandemic, with 19 per cent of people surveyed in Wales who normally vote in person saying they intend to vote by post this year.

Anyone wanting to have their say must be registered to vote by midnight on Monday, April 19, while 5pm on April 20 is the final deadline for postal vote applications.