Landslide victory

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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]

Contents

Notable examples

Australia

Local and mayoral elections:

State and territory elections:

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. 2021 Western Australian state election - Simple Results.svg
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.

Barbados

In Barbadian general 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.

Brazil

Canada

A map of the vote by province in 1940 shows the scale of the Liberals' landslide victory. Canada 1940 Federal Election.svg
A map of the vote by province in 1940 shows the scale of the Liberals' landslide victory.
A map of the vote by province in 1984 shows the scale of the Progressive Conservatives' landslide victory. Canada 1984 Federal Election.svg
A map of the vote by province in 1984 shows the scale of the Progressive Conservatives' landslide victory.

In a Canadian federal election, a landslide victory occurs when a political party gains a significant majority of the House of Commons of Canada.

Landslide victories may also occur during provincial elections, and territorial elections in Yukon. Landslide victories are not possible for territorial elections in the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, as its members are elected without reference to political parties, operating as a consensus government.

National landslide victories

The following Canadian federal elections resulted in landslide victories: [6]

  • 1874 – The Liberals won 133 seats while the Conservatives won just 73 seats.
  • 1878 – The Conservatives won 137 seats while the Liberals won just 69 seats.
  • 1882 – The Conservatives won 139 seats while the Liberals won just 71 seats.
  • 1900 – The Liberals won 132 seats while the Conservatives won just 81.
  • 1904 – The Liberals won 139 seats while the Conservatives won just 75.
  • 1908 – The Liberals won 133 seats while the Conservatives won just 85.
  • 1911 – The Conservatives won 133 seats while the Liberals won just 86.
  • 1917 – The Conservatives won 153 seats while the Liberals won just 82.
  • 1930 – The Conservatives won 137 seats while the Liberals won just 91.
  • 1935 – The Liberals won 171 seats while the Conservatives won just 39.
  • 1940 – The Liberals won 178 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 39.
  • 1949 – The Liberals won 190 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 41.
  • 1953 – The Liberals won 171 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 51.
  • 1958 – The Progressive Conservatives won 208 seats while the Liberals won just 48.
  • 1968 – The Liberals won 155 seats while the Progressive Conservatives won just 72.
  • 1984 – The Progressive Conservatives won 211 seats while the Liberals won just 40.
  • 1993 – The Liberals won 177 seats while the Bloc Québecois, which ran only in Québec, won 54. The ruling Progressive Conservatives dropped from 154 to 2.

Provincial examples

Costa Rica

Croatia

Results in all of Croatia's counties: the counties in blue voted for Tudman, and Istria County voted for Gotovac (marked in yellow). Croatia 1997 results runoff.PNG
Results in all of Croatia's counties: the counties in blue voted for Tuđman, and Istria County voted for Gotovac (marked in yellow).

Dominica

Fiji

France

Only include those after 1958.

French Polynesia

Grenada

In Grenadian general 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.

Hong Kong

Legislative Council elections:

Local elections:

Hungary

Ireland

The 1977 Irish general election, which elected members of the 21st Dáil Éireann on 16 June 1977, resulted in a landslide win for the main opposition party Fianna Fáil. The election saw the party win 84 seats in the 148 Dáil, receiving 50.6% of all first preference votes cast. The incumbent Fine Gael/Labour National Coalition government was defeated, with Fianna Fáil gaining a 20-seat majority in the lower house of the Oireachtas (Ireland's national parliament). This was the last time a single political party won an outright majority in an Irish general election.

Italy

Jamaica

In Jamaican 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.

Malaysia

Results of the Malaysian election of 2004. Barisan Nasional won the constituencies in blue. Malaysia election results map 2004.svg
Results of the Malaysian election of 2004. Barisan Nasional won the constituencies in blue.

Mexico

Monaco

Monaco is traditionally dominated by conservative parties with only two cases in which left-of-centre parties won any seats (1963 and 1973).

New Zealand

Until 1993, New Zealand used the traditional first-past-the-post system as in the U.K. to determine representation in its Parliament. Thus, landslide elections at that time were defined in an identical fashion, i.e. where one party got an overwhelming majority of the seats. Since 1996, New Zealand has used the mixed member proportional system as in Germany, making landslides much less likely. [12]

First past the post

MMP

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Philippines

Ramon Magsaysay (light green)'s 1953 landslide victory. 1953 Philippine presidential election results per province.png
Ramon Magsaysay (light green)'s 1953 landslide victory.

In 1941, the Nacionalista Party won the presidency, vice presidency, all seats in the Senate, and all but 3 seats in the House of Representatives. This was the biggest landslide in Philippine history. The legislators won't serve until 1945 though, due to World War II.

Starting in 1987, the Philippines evolved into a multi-party system, and coupled with the introduction of party-list elections in 1998, no party was able to win a landslide, much less a majority of seats, in the House of Representatives since then. This has also meant that no presidential and vice presidential election winner won a majority of votes, although, in 1998, the winners were described as having landslide victories, despite winning less than a majority of votes, due to large winning margins. Senatorial landslides are more possible though in midterm elections, as voters are usually presented with two distinct choices. The 2022 presidential election was the first landslide since 1987.

Presidential and vice presidential elections

In the Philippines, while there are presidential tickets, the positions of president and vice president are elected separately.

Senate

House of Representatives

Portugal

Legislative Elections

District map that shows the scale of the 1991 Social Democrats' landslide victory. 1991 Portuguese legislative election - Results.svg
District map that shows the scale of the 1991 Social Democrats' landslide victory.
District map that shows the scale of the 2022 Socialists' landslide victory. 2022 Portuguese legislative election - Vote Strength.svg
District map that shows the scale of the 2022 Socialists' landslide victory.

Presidential Elections

Azorean Regional Elections

Madeiran Regional Elections

Alberto João Jardim, member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) 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. In 2015, the party, now led by Miguel Albuquerque, also achieved a landslide victory.

Landslide victories for the Social Democratic Party in Madeira
Year % of votes for the PSD2nd most voted party % of votes for the 2nd most voted partyMargin
1976 election  [ pt ]59.6% Socialist Party 22.3%37.3
1980 election  [ pt ]65.3% Socialist Party 15.0%50.3
1984 election  [ pt ]67.8% Socialist Party 15.3%52.5
1988 election  [ pt ]62.3% Socialist Party 16.8%45.5
1992 election  [ pt ]56.9% Socialist Party 22.6%34.3
1996 election 56.9% Socialist Party 24.8%32.1
2000 election 56.0% Socialist Party 21.0%35.0
2004 election 53.7% Socialist Party 27.4%26.3
2007 election 64.2% Socialist Party 15.4%48.8
2011 election 48.6% CDS – People's Party 17.6%31.0
2015 election 44.4% CDS – People's Party 13.7%30.7

Samoa

Results of the 2006 Samoan general election by constituency. 2006 Samoan general election (results by constituency).svg
Results of the 2006 Samoan general election by constituency.

Slovakia

The Direction - Social Democracy landslide victory in 2012. 2012 Slovak legislative election - Vote Strength.svg
The Direction – Social Democracy landslide victory in 2012.

Spain

Basque Country

  • 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

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

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. 2020ROCPresident.svg
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

Trinidad and Tobago

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

United Kingdom

This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 1983. UK General Election, 1983.svg
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 1983.
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 1997. UK General Election, 1997.svg
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 1997.
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 2019. Results of the 2019 General Election in the UK v2.png
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 2019.
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 2024. 2024 United Kingdom general election - Result.svg
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 2024.

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. [19] [20] [21] [22]

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

Scotland

ScotlandParliamentaryConstituency2010Results.svg
2010
United Kingdom general election, 2015 (Scotland).svg
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.

United States

The map of the Electoral College in 1936 shows the scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide victory. ElectoralCollege1936.svg
The map of the Electoral College in 1936 shows the scale of Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide victory.
The map of the Electoral College in 1964 shows the scale of Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory. ElectoralCollege1964.svg
The map of the Electoral College in 1964 shows the scale of Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory.
The map of the Electoral College in 1972 shows the scale of Richard Nixon's landslide victory. ElectoralCollege1972.svg
The map of the Electoral College in 1972 shows the scale of Richard Nixon's landslide victory.
The map of the Electoral College in 1984 shows the scale of Ronald Reagan's landslide victory. ElectoralCollege1984.svg
The map of the Electoral College in 1984 shows the scale of Ronald Reagan's landslide victory.

A landslide victory in U.S. Presidential elections occurs when a candidate has an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College.

See also

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References

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