No Plaid 'unease' over Leanne Wood's narrow party list win

Leanne Wood was elected as an AM in 2011 as lead candidate on the South Wales Central regional list

A senior Plaid Cymru AM has insisted there is "no unease" within the party after its leader only narrowly won a key internal election.

Leanne Wood needed second preference votes to be the party's number one candidate on the South Wales Central list for the 2016 assembly election.

Labour called it "embarrassing".

But Plaid deputy leader Elin Jones said Ms Wood's narrow victory over Cardiff councillor Neil McEvoy was simply due to a "very competitive election".

As well as 40 constituency members, the assembly includes 20 AMs elected from five regional lists to give a more proportional result.

Topping the South Wales Central regional list - as she did in 2011 - makes Ms Wood's re-election to the assembly more likely.

'Strong candidates'

Sources say Mr McEvoy led after the first round of voting on Saturday, but was eventually runner-up to Ms Wood after members' second preferences were taken into account.

Dafydd Trystan was chosen as third candidate on the list.

Speaking at Plaid Cymru's weekly news conference in Cardiff Bay on Tuesday, Ms Jones denied any embarrassment for Ms Wood or the party at the way the candidates were selected.

She said she "wasn't surprised" by the closeness of the result, adding that Ms Wood would be "ably assisted by two very strong candidates in the second and third slots as well ... I feel and see and hear no unease with any of that".