Landslide victory

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. 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

Argentina

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's 2011 landslide victory in light blue.

Provincial elections:

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.

Federal elections:

Notable non-landslides:

  • The 1972 Australian federal election resulted in a victory for Labor under Gough Whitlam, ending 23 consecutive years of Coalition government. However, the result was not a landslide with Labor only winning 67 of 125 seats.
  • The 2019 Australian federal election, whilst polls showing a Labor victory, was won by the Coalition. The elected Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, became the first to serve a full term in office (serving one and a half terms) since John Howard. Scott Morrison famously used the phrase "the quiet Australians" in a speech following his victory.
  • The 2022 Australian federal election resulted in a victory for Labor, ending 9 years of Coalition government. It was a historic loss for the Coalition, which was reduced to just 58 seats of 151 seats, their worst result in 70 years. However, Labor only won a slim majority, 77 of 151 seats. This is because the Coalition losses were split between Labor, teal independents and the Greens, while Labor themselves also lost seats to independents and Greens.

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.
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:[7]

  • 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 Quebecois, 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 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:

  • 2019 – The pro-democracy camp seized control of 17 of the 18 District Councils, tripling their seats from about 124 to 389. The pro-Beijing parties and independents won only 61 seats, a loss of 242 seats, received their largest defeat in history.

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

  • 2005 Italian regional electionsThe Union centre-left coalition won the presidency in 12 out of 14 regions that were holding elections that year. After this election the centre-left controlled the presidency in 16 out of Italy's 20 regions.
  • 2020 Venetian regional election – Incumbent president of Veneto Luca Zaia (Lega) won carrying 76.79% of the vote, five times as many as his main opponent Arturo Lorenzoni's (PD) 15.72%.

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.

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.[13]

First past the post

MMP

  • 2002 election – The Labour Party won 52 seats while the National Party won just 27 seats.[15]
  • 2011 election – The National Party won 59 seats while the Labour Party won just 34 seats.
  • 2014 election – The National Party won 60 seats while the Labour Party won just 32 seats.[16]
  • 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)[17]

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Philippines

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

  • 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 Party2nd most voted party % of votes for the 2nd most voted partyMargin
1976 Madeiran regional election59.6%Socialist Party22.3%37.3
1980 Madeiran regional election65.3%Socialist Party15.0%50.3
1984 Madeiran regional election67.8%Socialist Party15.3%52.5
1988 Madeiran regional election62.3%Socialist Party16.8%45.5
1992 Madeiran regional election56.9%Socialist Party22.6%34.3
1996 Madeiran regional election56.9%Socialist Party24.8%32.1
2000 Madeiran regional election56.0%Socialist Party21.0%35.0
2004 Madeiran regional election53.7%Socialist Party27.4%26.3
2007 Madeiran regional election64.2%Socialist Party15.4%48.8
2011 Madeiran regional election48.6%CDS – People's Party17.6%31.0
2015 Madeiran regional election44.4%CDS – People's Party13.7%30.7

Samoa

Results of the 2006 Samoan general election by constituency.

Slovakia

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.

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.
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.[20][21][22][23]

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).[24][25]
  • 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).[26]
  • 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.[27]
  • 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.[28]
  • 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.[29]

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.

United States

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.
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.

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


See also

References

  1. 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. "Final Figures for the 2014 Tasmanian Election". ABC News. 26 March 2014.
  5. "Biggest State Election Landslides". Armarium Interreta. 12 March 2021. Archived from the original on 12 March 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  6. "Mark McGowan claims WA election victory as Liberals all but wiped out". The New Daily. 14 March 2021.
  7. "Party Standings in the House of Commons (1867-date)". PARLINFO. Library of Parliament. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  8. "Fiji's military strongman voted out in landslide to the Labour Party". 19 May 1999.
  9. Fiji coup leader sworn in as PM Herald Sun. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2023
  10. "Fiji's Military Ruler Wins Landslide Election Victory (2014)". YouTube.
  11. "Dominating victory in Jamaica elections even surprises winning opposition side". Washington Post. 30 December 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  12. "Political Tsunami turns Jamaica green with massive JLP victory". Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  13. Electoral Commission (17 July 2014). Mixed Member Proportional Representation in New Zealand (Video). Wellington.
  14. "1890–1993 general elections". Electoral Commission New Zealand. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  15. "Official Count Results -- Overall Status". 2002 General Election – Official Results. Electoral Commission. 8 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  16. "Official Count Results -- Overall Status". 2014 General Election – Official Results. Electoral Commission. 10 October 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  17. "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.
  18. "Elections in 2006". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  19. "Legislative Assembly (Fono)". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  20. 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.
  21. "Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority". BBC News. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  22. 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.
  23. "Inside the landslide: Thatcher's personal papers for 1983 opened to the public". University of Cambridge. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  24. "1906: The Liberal landslide". 9 February 2006 via bbc.co.uk.
  25. Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906.
  26. Labour Landslide, July 5-19, 1945.
  27. Labour's Landslide: The British General Election 1997.
  28. "The rise and fall of New Labour". BBC News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  29. "Boris Johnson must fulfil his One Nation pledge". Financial Times. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
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