The electoral ward is divided into a number of polling districts by the City and County of Swansea.

It is the largest ward in the UK Parliament and Welsh Assembly Swansea West.

Sketty first became an electoral ward in the late nineteenth century with the formation of Glamorgan County Council.

The three main UK-wide parties seem to have reasonable local infrastructures in the area, and have contested the vast majority of seats since the first elections to the City and County of Swansea authority in 1995.

The area has seen considerable electoral volatility, and there appears to be evidence of split ticket voting.

In recent elections, (post 1995) whilst there is evidence of considerable voting shifts between parties, no party has ever had the ignominy of its vote completely collapsing, and the area has seen some hotly contested local elections.

These elections saw Labour lose control, and a coalition of Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and independents take control of Swansea Council, the main local issue at the time was a planning issue concerning a proposed ASDA store in Derwen Fawr; however, there was little if any dispute between the parties on this matter.

In 2007, one of the two conservative councillors became an Independent when the Conservastive group left the ruling coalition.

In the 2008 local council elections, Paul Meara of the Liberal Democrats ousted the sitting Conservative councillor Tony Lloyd.