Wikipedia

Landslide victory

(Redirected from List of landslide victories)

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, but the term is colloquial. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.[1]

Notable examples

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Australia

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Local and mayoral elections:

State and territory elections:

  • 2021 Western Australian state election – Mark 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.

Barbados

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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

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Canada

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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

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

  • 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

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Costa Rica

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Croatia

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

Dominica

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Fiji

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France

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Only include those after 1958.

French Polynesia

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Grenada

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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

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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

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Ireland

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Italy

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  • 2005 Italian regional elections – The 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

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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

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

Mexico

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Monaco

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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

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  • 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)[11]

Philippines

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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 didn'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.

  • 1897 – Emilio Aguinaldo won with 57% of the vote. with his other two contemporaries being Andres Bonifacio with 31% and Mariano Trias having 12% of the vote.
  • 1935 – Manuel L. Quezon won with 68% of the vote. His running mate, Sergio Osmeña, won with 86% of the vote. Their second placers had 18% and 8% of the vote, respectively.
  • 1941 – Manuel L. Quezon won with 80% of the vote. His running mate, Sergio Osmeña, won with 90% of the vote. The second placers had 18% and 8% of the vote, respectively. This was the biggest landslide in an election where major opposition parties participated.
  • 1953 – Ramon Magsaysay won with 69% of the vote. His running mate, Carlos P. Garcia, won with 63% of the vote. Their opponents had 31% and 37% of the vote, respectively.
  • 1981 – Ferdinand Marcos won with 89% of the vote, and won in every province, with the main opposition coalition boycotting the election. This is the largest landslide in history.
  • 2022 – Bongbong Marcos won with 59% of the vote. His main rival, Leni Robredo, got 28% of the vote. Marcos' running mate, Sara Duterte, won with 62% of the vote. Her main rival, Francis Pangilinan, got 18% of the vote.

Senate

House of Representatives

Portugal

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Legislative Elections

 
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.

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 PSD 2nd most voted party % of votes for the 2nd most voted party Margin
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

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Results of the 2006 Samoan general election by constituency.
 

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

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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

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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

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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

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United Kingdom

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This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 1983.
 
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 1987.
 
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 1997.
 
This map shows the Labour Party landslide victory in 2001.
 
This map shows the Conservative Party landslide victory in 2019.
 
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.[14][15][16][17]

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

  • 1906 – Henry 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).[18][19]
  • 1945 – Clement 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).[20]
  • 1966 – Harold 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).
  • 1983 – Margaret 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).
  • 1997 – Tony 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.[21]
  • 2001 – Tony Blair led the Labour Party to 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.[22]
  • 2019 – Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to win a total of 365 seats (an increase of 48) and a majority of 80 seats, 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.[23]

See also

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References

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  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. ^ "Party Standings in the House of Commons (1867-date)". PARLINFO. Library of Parliament. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  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. 13 September 2016.
  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. ^ "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.
  12. ^ "Elections in 2006". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 17 March 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  13. ^ "Legislative Assembly (Fono)". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ "Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority". BBC News. 12 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ "Inside the landslide: Thatcher's personal papers for 1983 opened to the public". University of Cambridge. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  18. ^ "1906: The Liberal landslide". 9 February 2006 – via bbc.co.uk.
  19. ^ Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906.
  20. ^ Labour Landslide, July 5-19, 1945.
  21. ^ Labour's Landslide: The British General Election 1997.
  22. ^ "The rise and fall of New Labour". BBC News. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  23. ^ "Boris Johnson must fulfil his One Nation pledge". Financial Times. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
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