Adam Price elected as new leader of Plaid Cymru

The Assembly Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr saw off competition from previous leader Leanne Wood and fellow AM Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Mr Price collected the most votes in the first round of voting, but the election went to the second round of voting due to no candidate having a 50 per cent share.

In the second round of votes, the new leader received 3,491 of the almost 6,000 votes, claiming victory.

It is a huge honour to be elected leader of @Plaid_Cymru. Firstly, my thanks to @LeanneWood for her hard work since 2012 and to her and @RhunapIorwerth for such a good campaign. Secondly to those who supported me and all our party's members for taking part in the election... 1/2 pic.twitter.com/zSdjb3v0GV

— Adam Price (@Adamprice) September 28, 2018

Speaking about his fellow candidates, Adam Price said: "We three were friends before this campaign, during the campaign and remain friends and comrades here now today. 

"We have stood not against each other, but alongside each other, as servants of the party and the country and the people we love.

"In the coming months we must all show leadership, and Leanne and Rhun's undoubted strengths, passions and merits will be absolutely essential as we face this next chapter in our history.  

"I look forward to serving alongside them in the Government of Wales that we will form together in 2021."

Thanks, then, to the party's staff for administering the election so well and arranging all its events. The work of all of us starts today. By rolling up our sleeves together, we will now win a new Wales. 2/2

— Adam Price (@Adamprice) September 28, 2018

Addressing party members after the election declaration, the new Leader of Plaid Cymru said: "I am profoundly humbled and honoured to be the nominee of this party as First Minister of Wales.

"Our time has come - and with it positive, dynamic, permanent change to Wales and its politics.

"The fate of our nation is a shared responsibility.  We must all play a full part.  We have to realise that we are the ones we have been waiting for.

"We must become the hope of those without hope. The disillusioned, the disenfranchised.   Those who believe they cannot achieve their dreams; that we cannot ever become the Wales we need to be.

"Our message to the Welsh people must be simple: Yes Wales Can.

"We can be prosperous. We can be confident. We can be self-governing and successful. 

"Our dream will not be deferred, our future will not be denied, because it is our destiny – the next great chapter in Wales' story.

"It will not be written for us in the marbled halls of Whitehall and Westminster, but by us in the streets and alleyways of Wales, because our time for change has come.

"We're on our way - and we won't wait another day.

"Together we will win a New Wales."