When the one in three voters entitled to make a choice heads for the polling booths on Thursday it is difficult to gauge what might fully motivate the direction of travel for the pencil to place that X in the box.
More often than ever before, it seems driven by some mythical feel-good/bad factor or a raging single issue than a tribal political allegiance or general concern for the standard of schooling locally or lack of kerbside recycling.
Lib dem treasury spokesman Vince Cable reckons that the backlash from Labour’s 10p tax gaffe - doubling the income tax rate for 195,000 Welsh people - could cost them up to 100 seats in Wales on Thursday.
He said Wrexham Labour councillors have written to residents urging them to ignore the national picture and vote only on local issues: "All too often local elections become about national politics-what do you think of the Labour Government? However our local problems deserve a true vote on their own merits. We urge those of you planning to vote on polling day not to vote for or against us just because of our central party. "
First minister Rhodri Morgan has been putting in some time on the council election beat and has been left with at least some concern over support for the ABL (Anyone But Labour) party.
It manifested itself at the Assembly elections last year, when despite all efforts to concentrate the Labour-leaning vote on ‘mobile mammas’ or jobs creation, it was the Iraq war which intervened to leave Mr Morgan seeking a partnership with Plaid.
This time council candidates will face the 10p tax furore, credit crunch, and rising fuel and food bills as the political distractions which could cost or deliver their votes.
Mr Morgan calculates that those whose pay packets arrive either weekly or half way through the month will already have felt the pain of the tax implications of scrapping the 10p rate, if they earn below the £18,500 threshold.
But another battalion of those paid at the end of the month is yet to come.
How will it go?
Who really knows, except opposition parties are buoyant that prime minister Gordon Brown’s problems are mounting.
Labour, meanwhile, are concentrating on ‘dissing’ the Liberal Democrats wherever they have a hand on the levers of powers in country halls in any ever frantic attack based on crime and anti-social behaviour.
Less than a handful of seats changing hands in Flintshire could rob Labour of overall control in the county, one of the few where that remains the case, albeit remaining the largest party by some way.
In Gwynedd, the clash between Plaid and Llais Gwynedd promises to make the county one of the most interesting battlegrounds in Wales.
The Conservatives will be anxious for a continued Cameron effect on their results in Wales as a progress report on the path to the next general election, while Plaid will also seek some gain, to assess the impact of coalition with Labour.
The Liberal Democrats made some prestige gains in the last council polls, becoming part of the ruling executives in Wrexham, Cardiff, Swansea and Bridgend and will want to at least keep hold of what they have, or consolidate.
With the phalanxes of independents also standing across Wales in the council polls, it is ever more likely that weird and wonderful alliances will need to be formed to run local services by Friday.
