Landslide victory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin.[1] The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried",[1] similar to the way in which a geological landslide buries whatever is in its path. A landslide victory is the opposite of an electoral wipeout; a party which wins in a landslide typically inflicts a wipeout on its opposition.

What constitutes a landslide varies by the type of electoral system. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.[1]

Notable examples[edit]

Argentina[edit]

Australia[edit]

Local and mayoral elections:

State and territory elections:

  • 2021 Western Australian state electionMark McGowan led the Labor Party to win 53 out of the 59 seats in the lower house. The Labor Party had a primary vote of 59.92% and a two-party-preferred vote of 69.68%. The National Party won 4 seats and the Liberal Party won 2 seats, making the National Party the official opposition, the first time they had held this status since the 1940s. To date, the election is the most decisive result at any Australian state or federal election since Federation, in terms of both percentage of lower house seats controlled by the governing party (89.8%) and two-party preferred margin.[4][5]
Map displaying Labor's landslide victory at the 2021 Western Australian state election. Seats won by Labor are in red, seats won by the Liberals are in blue and seats won by the Nationals are in green.


Fiji[edit]

Jamaica[edit]

Malaysia[edit]

Results of the Malaysian election of 2004. Barisan Nasional won the constituencies in blue.


New Zealand[edit]

  • 2020 election – The Labour Party won 65 seats while the National Party won just 33 seats (the first time any party won an overall majority under MMP)[13]

Portugal[edit]

Legislative Elections

  • 1987 – The centre-right Social Democratic Party led by Cavaco Silva won 148 out of the 250 seats and 50.2% of the popular vote. The second most voted party, the Socialist Party would receive just 22.2% of the total voting, falling 28 percentage points behind the winners.
  • 1991 – Following the success attained in the previous legislative elections, the Social Democratic Party led by Cavaco Silva won 135 out of the 230 seats and 50.6% of the popular vote. The Socialist Party would also rise in voting, receiving 29.1% of the votes, but would still be far short of the Social Democrats.

Presidential Elections

Azorean Regional Elections

Madeiran Regional Elections

Alberto João Jardim, member of the Social Democratic Party was the president of the Madeira region from 1978 to 2015. During this period of time, landslide victories for the Social Democrats were the norm.

Landslide victories for the Social Democratic Party in Madeira
Year % of votes for the Social Democratic Party 2nd most voted party % of votes for the 2nd most voted party Margin
1976 Madeiran regional election [pt] 59.6% Socialist Party 22.3% 37.3
1980 Madeiran regional election [pt] 65.3% Socialist Party 15.0% 50.3
1984 Madeiran regional election [pt] 67.8% Socialist Party 15.3% 52.5
1988 Madeiran regional election [pt] 62.3% Socialist Party 16.8% 45.5
1992 Madeiran regional election [pt] 56.9% Socialist Party 22.6% 34.3
1996 Madeiran regional election 56.9% Socialist Party 24.8% 32.1
2000 Madeiran regional election 56.0% Socialist Party 21.0% 35.0
2004 Madeiran regional election 53.7% Socialist Party 27.4% 26.3
2007 Madeiran regional election 64.2% Socialist Party 15.4% 48.8
2011 Madeiran regional election 48.6% CDS – People's Party 17.6% 31.0
2015 Madeiran regional election 44.4% CDS – People's Party 13.7% 30.7

Samoa[edit]

Results of the 2006 Samoan general election by constituency.

Slovakia[edit]

The Direction – Social Democracy landslide victory in 2012.

Spain[edit]

Basque Country[edit]

  • 2001Juan Jose Ibarretxe's Basque National Party-Basque Solidarity (PNV-EA) alliance won 33 seats and 42.2% of the share, 20 percentage points ahead of PP. The result is the best performance for the top voted list in a Basque regional election. With a record turnout of 79%, PNV-EA obtained more than 600,000 votes. PNV-EA also won more seats than PP (19) and PSE-EE (13) together, and was able to secure a working majority in parliament.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines[edit]

A landslide victory in the elections of St. Vincent and the Grenadines involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.

Taiwan[edit]

In the 2020 election, the Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won 8.17 million votes, 57.1% of the votes cast, a historic landslide victory.

Presidential and Legislative Election held on the same day

Thailand[edit]

Trinidad and Tobago[edit]

In Trinidad and Tobago's elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood. Party politics and the political structure in Trinidad and Tobago has generally run along ethnic lines with most Afro-Trinidadians supporting the People's National Movement (PNM) and most Indo-Trinidadians supporting various Indian-majority parties, such as the current United National Congress (UNC) or its predecessors.

Tobago

Ukraine[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 1983.
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 1997.
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 2019.

In UK General Elections, a landslide victory involves winning a large majority in parliament and often goes with a large swing from one party to another as well. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood. In the past a majority of over 100 was regarded as the technical hurdle to be defined as a landslide, as that allows the government freedom to easily enact its policies in parliament. In more recent times, the label 'landslide' has been applied in numerous press articles to victories which would not previously have been regarded as such, for example the Conservative Party majority of 80 in 2019. Its current usage is more as political commentary rather than technical definition and is a reflection of the strength of the party's ability to put its programme through parliament.[16][17][18][19]

The largest landslide by any single party in the UK parliament, since universal suffrage was introduced, was the majority of 179 won by Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997.

Notable landslide election results

  • 1906Henry Campbell-Bannerman led his Liberal Party to victory over Arthur Balfour's Conservative Party who lost more than half their seats, including his own seat in Manchester East, as a result of the large national swing to the Liberal Party (The 5.4% swing from the Conservatives to Liberals was at the time the highest ever achieved). The Liberal Party won 397 seats (an increase of 214) while the Conservative Party were left with 156 seats (a decrease of 246).[20][21]
  • 1931 - A National Government victory[22] which saw the coalition parties win 67% of the votes and 554 seats out of 615. Although the bulk of the National Government's support came from the Conservative Party, who won 470 seats, National Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald remained as Prime Minister. The Labour Party suffered its greatest defeat, losing four out of every five seats compared with the previous election, including the seat of its leader Arthur Henderson. Ivor Bulmer-Thomas said the results "were the most astonishing in the history of the British party system".[23] It is the most recent election in which one party (the Conservatives) received an absolute majority of the votes cast.
  • 1945Clement Attlee led his Labour Party to victory over Winston Churchill's Conservative Party, a 12.0% swing from the Conservatives to Labour. Labour won 393 seats (an increase of 239) while the Conservative Party were left with 197 (a decrease of 190).[24]
  • 1966Harold Wilson led the Labour Party to win 364 seats (an increase of 47) and gained an overall majority of 98 while the Conservative Party won 253 seats (a decrease of 51).
  • 1983Margaret Thatcher won her second term in office with a landslide victory for the Conservatives gaining an overall majority of 144 by winning 397 seats (an increase of 38 seats) on 42.4% of the national vote and forcing her main opponent Michael Foot to resign after Labour won 209 seats.
  • 1987 – Margaret Thatcher won her third term in office with a second landslide victory for the Conservatives gaining an overall majority of 102 by winning 376 seats (a decrease of 21 seats).
  • 1997Tony Blair led the Labour Party to win 418 seats (an increase of 145) and gained an overall majority of 179 while the Conservative Party won 165 seats (a decrease of 178). The swing from the Conservatives to Labour was 10.2% and was the second biggest general election victory of the 20th Century after 1931.[25]
  • 2001 – Tony Blair led the Labour Party win 412 seats (a decrease of 6) and gained an overall majority of 167 while the Conservative Party won 166 seats (an increase of 1). Making Tony Blair the first Labour Prime Minister to serve two consecutive full terms in office.[26]
  • 2019Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party win a total of 365 seats (an increase of 48) and a majority of 80 seat, the party's largest majority since 1987. It left the Labour Party, who were led by Jeremy Corbyn, with 202 seats (a decrease of 60, their worst result since 1935). The election led to 54 Labour seats changing to Conservative predominantly in the Midlands and Northern England - some of which had been held by Labour since the first half of the 20th century.[27]

Scotland

2010 election results in Scotland
2010
2015 election results in Scotland
2015
A landslide victory in Scotland at the 2015 UK General Election (Scotland). The SNP (yellow) won 56 of Scotland's 59 seats; Conservatives (blue), Labour (red) and Lib Dems (orange) won just one seat each.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Murse, Tom (8 October 2020). "Landslide Victory: Definition in Elections". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Newman wins Brisbane election landslide". ABC News. 15 March 2008.
  3. ^ "The Mayor that was re-elected in a landslide, collecting 85 per cent of the votes". 20 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Biggest State Election Landslides". Armarium Interreta. 12 March 2021. Archived from the original on 12 March 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Mark McGowan claims WA election victory as Liberals all but wiped out". The New Daily. 14 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Fiji's military strongman voted out in landslide to the Labour Party". 19 May 1999.
  7. ^ Fiji coup leader sworn in as PM Herald Sun. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2023
  8. ^ "Fiji's Military Ruler Wins Landslide Election Victory (2014)". YouTube.
  9. ^ "Dominating victory in Jamaica elections even surprises winning opposition side". Washington Post. 30 December 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  10. ^ "Political Tsunami turns Jamaica green with massive JLP victory". Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  11. ^ Aglionby, John (22 March 2004). "Malaysia's governing coalition set to romp home". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  12. ^ "Malaysia's mandate for moderation". CNN.com. 6 May 2004. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  13. ^ "New Zealand election: Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party scores landslide win". BBC News. 17 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  14. ^ "Elections in 2006". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Legislative Assembly (Fono)". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  16. ^ Bush, Stephen (8 June 2021). "Despite all reports, the election wasn't a landslide – and Johnson may be about to discover that reality". New Statesman. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  17. ^ "Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority". BBC News. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  18. ^ Holder, Josh; Voce, Antonio; Barr, Caelainn; Holder, Josh; Voce, Antonio; Barr, Caelainn. "How did Boris Johnson achieve his landslide victory? A visual guide". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  19. ^ "Inside the landslide: Thatcher's personal papers for 1983 opened to the public". University of Cambridge. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  20. ^ "1906: The Liberal landslide". 9 February 2006 – via bbc.co.uk.
  21. ^ Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906.
  22. ^ Macmahon, Arthur W. (1932). "The British General Election of 1931". American Political Science Review. 26 (2): 333–345. doi:10.2307/1947117. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1947117. S2CID 143537799.
  23. ^ Bulmer-Thomas, Ivor (1967), The Growth of the British Party System Volume II 1924–1964, p. 76
  24. ^ Labour Landslide, July 5-19, 1945.
  25. ^ Labour's Landslide: The British General Election 1997.
  26. ^ "The rise and fall of New Labour". BBC News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  27. ^ "Boris Johnson must fulfil his One Nation pledge". Financial Times. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.