National Assembly for Wales
He was elected as Member of the National Assembly for Wales for Preseli Pembrokeshire at the 1999 Welsh assembly election in a divided election, receiving just over a third of the vote. He was initially selected to chair the assembly Local Government and Environment Committee, before committees were changed in March 2000, from which point on he chaired the Environment, Planning and Transport Committee.
In November 2001, he announced his intention to stand down from the Welsh Assembly at the 2003 Welsh Assembly election, due to an illness he at the time refused to disclose. It was later revealed to have been leukemia, and that he had been suffering from it since shortly after being selected as a candidate in 1999. First Minister Rhodri Morgan described him as "[seeming] to have managed to cheat death on innumerable occasions."
He was named Assembly Politician of the Year by Channel 4 in 2002.
In 2002, Edwards called for the Welsh media to end its 'obsession' with rugby, a sport he described Wales as being 'frankly hopeless' at, saying that they should instead focus on football. He was criticised by Gareth Evans, who stated that he was "just jumping on a bandwagon" and that Wales "have had five minutes of glory in football. [Wales has] enjoyed more success in rugby over the past 100 years."
