Katalin Lévai (born May 22, 1954, in Budapest ) is a Hungarian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Hungarian Socialist Party , part of the Party of European Socialists .
99-503: Lévai is a maverick and social-liberal politician who is willing to use bombastic statements to draw attention to the social and equality issues. In 2003 was named the first minister without portfolio for equal opportunities, and was termed the 'Conscience of the Government'. In 2005 she became a presidential candidate in Hungary. Due to 'inside issues' the left government in place managed to vote
198-509: A first-past-the-post system at the time, the conservative vote was split between the Country and Nationalists, allowing Labor candidate Edwin Corboy to come in first place and win the seat. The Swan by-election is cited as the reason for the introduction of preferential voting , to prevent Labor from benefiting from a divided opposition in the future. The 2018 Wentworth by-election was held after
297-430: A parliamentary system , it is more likely to produce single-party governments than are PR methods, which tend to produce coalition governments . While runoff voting is designed to ensure that each individual candidate elected is supported by a majority of those in their constituency, if used to elect an assembly it does not ensure this result on a national level. As in other non-PR methods, the party or coalition which wins
396-481: A ranked-choice runoff between them in the second round. In the rest of the country, the use of partisan primaries paired with the two-party system is structurally similar and is often described as a de facto two-round system. Although advocates hoped the two-round method would elect more moderates and encourage turnout among independents, research has shown the method has little to no effect when compared to partisan primaries, or with systems that only require
495-413: A Condorcet winner exists, the candidate does not necessarily win a runoff election due to insufficient support in the first round. Runoff advocates counter that voters' first preference is more important than lower preferences because that is where voters are putting the most effort of decision and that, unlike Condorcet methods, runoffs require a high showing among the full field of choices in addition to
594-645: A by-election before the legislature's first session . Clark was successful and remained in government until 2017 . In the March 2018 Hong Kong by-elections , the pro-democracy camp lost their majority status for the first time in the Geographical constituency part of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong By-elections were held after six pro-democracy lawmakers were disqualified by the High Court of Hong Kong during
693-470: A by-election should be called for any vacancy arising from a constituency - particularly Single Member Constituency - within a reasonable time period. Since the introduction of partial self-governance in 1955, 34 by-elections have been held, and some have been major upsets: A by-election held in Dublin South-West during 2014 provided a very surprising upset. The Sinn Féin candidate, Cathal King,
792-550: A by-election was in 1975, when Minister of Communications Pierre Juneau was appointed to Pierre Trudeau 's Liberal cabinet directly from the private sector, and tried to enter parliament through a by-election in Hochelaga . Juneau unexpectedly lost to the Progressive Conservative candidate and resigned from cabinet 10 days after his by-election defeat. In Alberta, Premier Don Getty lost his seat ( Edmonton-Whitemud ) in
891-709: A by-election. This is done, for example, in the Dáil of the Republic of Ireland (STV), in the Parliament of Vanuatu (SNTV), and in the Senate of the Philippines (Pl. AL). In those systems, alternatives to holding a by-election include: For the Australian Senate (in which each state forms a multi-member constituency elected via single transferable vote ), the state parliament appoints
990-458: A candidate to win the support of voters whose favorite candidate has been eliminated. Under runoff voting, between rounds of voting, eliminated candidates, and the factions who previously supported them, often issue recommendations to their supporters as to whom to vote for in the second round of the contest. This means that eliminated candidates are still able to influence the result of the election. This influence leads to political bargaining between
1089-516: A centralized count, as it is impossible to tally or audit RCV results locally . The two-round voting system also has the potential to cause political instability between the two rounds of voting. The two-round system is the most common way used to elect heads of state (presidents) of countries worldwide, a total of 87 countries elect their heads of state directly with a two-round system as opposed to only 22 countries that used single-round plurality ( first-past-the-post ). Two-round voting
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#17328546918821188-440: A council or legislature it will not produce proportional representation (PR). This means that it is likely to lead to the representation of a small number of larger parties in an assembly, rather than a proliferation of small parties. In practice, runoff voting produces results very similar to those produced by the plurality method, and encourages a two-party system similar to those found in many countries that use plurality. Under
1287-403: A different winner than the candidate elected by the other two. Advocates of Condorcet methods argue that a candidate can claim to have majority support only if they are the "Condorcet winner" – that is, the candidate who would beat every other candidate in a series of one-on-one elections. In runoff voting the winning candidate is only matched, one-on-one, with one of the other candidates. When
1386-580: A distinct name ( e.g. , supplementary election , as in Australia ). The procedure for filling a vacant seat in the House of Commons of England was developed during the Reformation Parliament of the 16th century by Thomas Cromwell ; previously a seat had remained empty upon the death of a member. Cromwell devised a new election that would be called by the king at a time of the king's choosing. This made it
1485-732: A good read who still believe that even politicians are human. She was the party's candidate at the District II of Budapest by-election in November 2011. She came second with 30.55 percent after Zsolt Láng ( Fidesz ). In September 2017, Katalin Lévai and György Földényi, the President of the National Representative Body of Pensioners founded a new political party For Hungary With Vigour ( Hungarian : Lendülettel Magyarországért ) to work for
1584-455: A majority of seats will often not have the support of an absolute majority of voters across the nation. In smaller elections, such as those in assemblies or private organizations, it is sometimes possible to conduct both rounds in quick succession. More commonly, however, large-scale public elections the two rounds of runoff voting are held on separate days, and so involve voters going to the polls twice and governments conducting two elections. As
1683-409: A method, because the voters are not forced to vote according to a single ordinal preference in both rounds. If the voters determine their preferences before the election and always vote directly consistent to them, they will emulate the contingent vote and get the same results as if they were to use that method. Therefore, in that model of voting behavior, the two-round system passes all criteria that
1782-557: A minority party needs to gain one or more seats in order to gain official party status or the balance of power in a minority or coalition situation. For example, Andrea Horwath 's win in an Ontario provincial by-election in 2004 allowed the Ontario New Democratic Party to regain official party status with important results in terms of parliamentary privileges and funding. In 1996 in the Australian state of Queensland
1881-521: A motion of no confidence in the government. After the motion or no confidence Rob Borbidge the leader of the Nationals the senior partner in the coalition became premier until his government's defeat in the 1998 state election . Non-experts often interpret by-election results as a bellwether or early indicator of the results of the next general election, but political scientists generally caution against overinterpretation. The evidence suggests that while
1980-461: A primary will also be held to determine which candidates will represent the major parties. When one seat in a multi-member constituency becomes vacant, the consequences vary. For example, a by-election may be held to fill just the vacancy, all the seats in the constituency could be contested in the by-election, or the vacancy could be filled by other means. Typically, party-list proportional representation systems do not hold by-elections. Instead,
2079-508: A replacement in the event of a vacancy; in 1977 a referendum amended the Constitution to require that the person appointed must belong to the same political party (if any) as the Senator originally elected to that seat. The states with an upper house elected via STV (NSW, Victoria, and South Australia) use the same method, except for Western Australia, which holds a recount of ballots to determine
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#17328546918822178-399: A result, one of the most common criticisms against the two-round system is that the cost and difficulty of casting a ballot is effectively doubled. However, the system may sometimes still be cheaper than holding a ranked-choice runoff (RCV) , as the counting of votes in each round is simple. By contrast, ranked-choice runoff voting involves a longer and more complex count that often requires
2277-450: A result, with confidence in his government undermined, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King called the 1945 federal election several weeks later; originally he had intended to postpone the election until the war was clearly won. McNaughton sought a seat in the 1945 contest but was again defeated, and resigned shortly after. The most recent example of a cabinet minister appointed from outside parliament having to resign after losing
2376-449: A right wing president, thus her aspirations were unsuccessful. She is one of the most fervent supporters of same-sex marriage in Hungary. She also works to mainstream gender equality issues at all levels of decision making, for removing obstacles – physical and mental as well – that hinder disabled people in accessing social services as equal citizens, and for effective measures ensuring the social integration of Roma people in Hungary and in
2475-462: A seat in the House of Representatives , state legislature , or local legislature becomes vacant. At the federal level, the U.S. Constitution requires that vacancies in the House of Representatives be filled with a special election (unlike the Senate , where it is up to law of the state involved to determine how the vacancy is filled). In most cases where a vacancy is filled through a special election,
2574-497: A second-round election "when none of the candidates obtains an absolute majority". The rule has since gained substantial popularity in South America , Eastern Europe , and Africa , where it is now the dominant system. Some variants of the two-round system use slightly different rules for eliminating candidates in the first round, allowing more than two candidates to proceed to the second round in some cases. Under such systems, it
2673-454: A separate vote in each round, under instant-runoff, voters vote only once. This is possible because, rather than voting for only a single candidate, the voter ranks all of the candidates in order of preference. These preferences are then used to transfer the votes of those whose first preference has been eliminated during the course of the count. Because the two-round system and the exhaustive ballot involve separate rounds of voting, voters can use
2772-460: A simple matter to ensure the seat rewarded an ally of the crown. During the eighteen-year Cavalier Parliament of Charles II , which lasted from 1661 to 1679, by-elections were the primary means by which new members entered the House of Commons. By-elections are held in most nations that elect their parliaments through single-member constituencies , whether with or without a runoff round. This includes most Commonwealth countries, such as
2871-597: A single round such as ranked-choice voting. Research by social choice theorists has long identified all three rules as vulnerable to center squeeze , a kind of spoiler effect favoring extremists in crowded elections. The French system of ballotage was first established as part of the reforms of the July Monarchy , with the term appearing in the Organic Decree of 2 February 1832 of the French government, which mandated
2970-411: A strong showing in the final head-to-head competition. Condorcet methods can allow candidates to win who have minimal first-choice support and can win largely on the compromise appeal of being ranked second or third by more voters. Runoff voting encourages candidates to appeal to a broad cross-section of voters. This is because, in order to win an absolute majority in the second round, it is necessary for
3069-424: A switch from mixed single vote , where a single set of votes was used for both constituency and list seats, to a conventional two-vote mixed member proportional system - a change which granted constituency members an electoral mandate distinct from the party's list seats. By-elections are now only held if a vacancy arises in a constituency seat and there is no associated party list with which to fill it – typically, if
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3168-639: A test of the Liberal government's popularity with a general election due in less than a year. In Hong Kong, in January 2010, five members of the Legislative Council from the Pro-democracy camp , one from each of Hong Kong's five geographical constituencies, resigned and stood in simultaneous by-elections, at which the entire electorate would participate, in an attempt to stage a de facto referendum on democratizing
3267-605: A test of this concept, and his upset victory convinced the CCF and the labour movement to launch the New Democratic Party (NDP). Gilles Duceppe 's 1990 upset landslide by-election victory in Laurier—Sainte-Marie with 66% of the vote on behalf of the newly formed Bloc Québécois was the first electoral test for what was initially a loose parliamentary formation created two months earlier after several Quebec MPs defected from
3366-513: A two-round system, if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes in the first round proceed to a second round where all other candidates are excluded. Both rounds are held under choose-one voting , where the voter marks a single favored candidate. The two-round system first emerged in France , and has since become the most common single-winner electoral system worldwide. The two-round system
3465-442: A vacancy may be filled by a method other than a by-election (such as the outgoing member's party nominating a replacement) or the office may be left vacant. These elections can be held anytime in the country. An election to fill a vacancy created when a general election cannot take place in a particular constituency (such as if a candidate dies shortly before election day) may be called a by-election in some jurisdictions, or may have
3564-470: A very different political agenda, so that these smaller parties end up weakening their own agenda. The intention of runoff voting is that the winning candidate will have the support of an absolute majority of voters. Under the first past the post method the candidate with most votes (a plurality) wins, even if they do not have an absolute majority (more than half) of votes. The two-round system tries to overcome this problem by permitting only two candidates in
3663-402: Is a perfect-information equilibrium and so only strictly holds in idealized conditions where every voter knows every other voter's preference. Thus it provides an upper bound on what can be achieved with rational (self-interested) coordination or knowledge of others' preferences. Since the voters almost surely will not have perfect information, it may not apply to real elections. In that matter, it
3762-418: Is a single winner voting method . It is sometimes called plurality-runoff , although this term can also be used for other, closely-related systems such as instant-runoff (or ranked-choice) voting or the exhaustive ballot (which typically produce similar results). It falls under the class of plurality-based voting rules, together with instant-runoff (or ranked-choice) and first-past-the-post (FPP) . In
3861-417: Is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections . A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumbent dying or resigning, or when the incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office (because of a recall , a prohibited dual mandate , criminal conviction, or failure to maintain a minimum attendance), or when an election is invalidated by voting irregularities. In some cases
3960-605: Is known as the single transferable vote (STV) and is used for presidential elections and parliamentary elections. However, STV as applied in multi-member districts is a proportional voting system, not a majoritarian one; and candidates need only achieve a quota (or the highest remaining fraction of a quota), to be elected. STV is used in Northern Ireland, Malta, the Australian senate and various other jurisdictions in Australia. It
4059-519: Is often used for municipal elections in lieu of more party-based forms of proportional representation. The contingent or supplementary vote is a variant of instant-runoff voting that has been used in Queensland and was previously used in the United Kingdom to elect some mayors; it was ultimately abandoned as a result of its complex election administration . Under the contingent vote, voters rank
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4158-426: Is similar to the perfect competition model sometimes used in economics. To the extent that real elections approach this upper bound, large elections would do so less so than small ones, because it is less likely that a large electorate has information about all the other voters than that a small electorate has. Runoff voting is intended to reduce the potential for eliminating "wasted" votes by tactical voting . Under
4257-526: Is sufficient for a candidate to receive a plurality of votes (more votes than anyone else) to be elected in the second round. In the 2002 French presidential election , the two contenders described by the media as possible winners were Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin , who represented the largest two political parties in France at the time. However, 16 candidates were on the ballot, including Jean-Pierre Chevènement (5.33%) and Christiane Taubira (2.32%) from
4356-426: Is this weak candidate, rather than a stronger rival, who survives to challenge one's preferred candidate in the second round. But in practice, such a tactic may prove counter-productive. If so many voters give their first preferences to the "weak" candidate that it ends up winning the first round, it is highly likely they will gain enough campaign momentum to have a strong chance of winning the runoff, too, and with it,
4455-417: Is vulnerable to strategic nomination for the same reasons that it is open to the voting tactic of compromising. This is because a candidate who knows they are unlikely to win can ensure that another candidate they support makes it to the second round by withdrawing from the race before the first round occurs, or by never choosing to stand in the first place. By withdrawing candidates a political faction can avoid
4554-565: Is widely used in the election of legislative bodies and directly elected presidents. Despite this, the rule has received substantial criticism from social choice theorists , leading to the rise of electoral reform movements seeking to abolish it in France and elsewhere. In the United States, the system is used to elect most public officials in Louisiana (though parties do not put forward just one candidate, which allows multiple candidates from
4653-745: The 1989 Alberta general election despite his party winning a majority. To re-enter the Legislative Assembly, fellow caucus member Brian Downey of Stettler resigned so Getty could run in a by-election. Getty was elected, and remained MLA for that riding until resigning as premier and MLA in 1992. In Ontario , John Tory , leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario ran in a 2009 by-election in Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock , after he convinced one of his caucus members to step down, in hopes of re-entering
4752-642: The Conscription Crisis of 1944 . A by-election was arranged in Grey North which the opposition Progressive Conservative party contested. The major campaign issue became the government's policy of "limited conscription" during World War II, which McNaughton supported, and which the Conservatives rejected. They called, instead, for "full conscription". McNaughton was defeated in the February 5, 1945 by-election. As
4851-567: The Conservative Party use EB to elect their prospective parliamentary candidates (PPCs). Exhaustive ballot is also used by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to select hosts. Instant-runoff voting (IRV), like the exhaustive ballot, involves multiple reiterative counts in which the candidate with fewest votes is eliminated each time. Whilst the exhaustive ballot and the two-round system both involve voters casting
4950-569: The House of Representatives of Japan (elected under parallel voting). If a vacancy arises in a party list seat, it would be filled in the manner usual for party-list proportional systems; for example, on the resignation of Darren Hughes from the Parliament of New Zealand in March 2011, Louisa Wall filled the seat after all the five candidates above her on the New Zealand Labour Party 's list declined it. Exceptions to this rule exist: In
5049-654: The Massachusetts special election to the United States Senate . Coakley, a Democrat , had been widely expected to win, but Brown unexpectedly closed the gap and won, a shocking result in the heavily-Democratic state of Massachusetts. This eliminated the Democratic Party's filibuster-proof majority of 60 votes. Another upset occurred in the 2017 special election in Alabama , one of the most heavily Republican states in
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#17328546918825148-467: The Ontario legislature . His by-election defeat resulted in his resignation as party leader. In British Columbia , sitting Premier Christy Clark lost her seat in the 2013 British Columbia general election . In order to remain in the legislature , she convinced her fellow caucus member Ben Stewart of Westside-Kelowna to resign as an MLA twenty-two days after the general election, so Clark could run in
5247-459: The Plural Left coalition of Jospin, who refused by excess of confidence to dissuade them. With the left vote divided among a number of candidates, a third contender, Jean-Marie Le Pen , unexpectedly obtained slightly more than Jospin in the first round: The other candidates received smaller percentages on the first round. Because no candidate had obtained an absolute majority of the votes in
5346-626: The United Kingdom , Canada , Australia and New Zealand , as well as non-Commonwealth countries such as France and Italy (until 2006). However, in some cases, such as the French National Assembly , by-elections are only used to fill some vacancies, with the others being filled by the assumption of a seat by a running mate nominated by the vacator. In the United States, these contests have been called "special elections" because they do not always occur on Election Day like regular congressional elections. Special elections are held when
5445-516: The oath-taking controversy . The pro-democracy camp was considered safe in the de facto first past the post by-election because both pro-democracy camp and pro-Beijing camp would only nominate one candidate to fill in the by-election. However, the pro-democracy camp lost twice in Kowloon West , which had been considered a safe seat for them. Under Article 49(1) of the Constitution of Singapore ,
5544-446: The plurality voting system (also known as first past the post), voters are encouraged to vote tactically, by voting for only one of the two leading candidates, because a vote for any other candidate will not affect the result. Under runoff voting, this tactic, known as "compromising", it is sometimes unnecessary because even if a voter's favorite candidate is eliminated in the first round, they will still have an opportunity to influence
5643-431: The spoiler effect , whereby a candidate "splits the vote" of its supporters. A famous example of this spoiler effect occurred in the 2002 French presidential election , when so many left-wing candidates stood in the first round that all of them were eliminated and two right-wing candidates advanced to the second round. Conversely, an important faction may have an interest in helping fund the campaign of smaller factions with
5742-547: The two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of the final round of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, the Liberal/National Coalition is usually considered a single party, with Labor being the other major party. Typically the TPP is expressed as the percentages of votes attracted by each of
5841-614: The Conservatives' Arthur Meighen (who had already served as Prime Minister during the 1920s) sought to re-enter the House of Commons of Canada through a by-election in York South . His surprise defeat at the hand of Joseph Noseworthy of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation ended his political career, and may also have been a factor in the Conservative Party's decision to move to the left and rebrand itself
5940-479: The German Bundestag , which uses mixed-member proportional representation, by-elections were originally held upon the vacancy of any constituency seat. This was changed in January 1953, since which time vacancies in constituency seats have been filled by the next candidate on the state list of the party which won the seat, in the same manner as vacancies among list seats. Confusingly, this change occurred alongside
6039-682: The Hong Kong political system. The effect of the manoeuvre was blunted when the Pro-Beijing camp refused to stand candidates against them. The 1918 Swan by-election was held following the death of John Forrest . The seat was traditionally a safe seat for the Nationalist Party against the Labor Party , but the emergence of the Country Party lead to a "three-cornered contest" . As Australia used
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#17328546918826138-503: The Progressive Conservative Party under Meighen's replacement. Noseworthy's victory was also a significant breakthrough for the CCF giving it credibility as a national party where it has previously been seen as a Western Canadian regional protest party. On November 1, 1944, General Andrew McNaughton was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Defence without having a seat in parliament, after his predecessor resigned during
6237-621: The Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties to protest the failure of the Meech Lake Accord and provided the first indication that the party could be a serious force in the province of Quebec. On the strength of the by-election victory, the BQ went on to be officially formed as a party in 1991 and win 54 seats in the 1993 federal election, enough to form the Official Opposition. By-elections may occur singly or in small bunches, especially if
6336-822: The Sinn Féin candidate in attracting transfers. Murphy then took his seat in the 31st Dáil . As a direct result of this defeat in the by-election, Sinn Féin hardened their stance against Irish Water and called for the complete abolition of water charges in Ireland. In 1965, the British Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker stood in the Leyton by-election for election to the UK Parliament , having been defeated in controversial circumstances in Smethwick at
6435-455: The United States, the two-round system is used in Louisiana in place of traditional primary elections to choose each party's candidate. In this state, the first round is held on Election Day with runoffs occurring soon after. Georgia also uses the system for special elections. Washington adopted a minor variant on the two-round system in a 2008 referendum , called the nonpartisan blanket primary or top-two primary. California approved
6534-458: The aim of co-ordinating local services to the citizens (direct social assistance, legal aid, mental help, etc.) Newly, Katalin Lévai is also known as a writer. She is the author of several books, publications in the past on her professional work, in November 2007 her third semi-fiction has been published, selling well on the Hungarian market. Good writing style, with some political input, ought to be
6633-408: The authority responsible for calling them has discretion over the timing and can procrastinate. They are sometimes bunched to save money, as holding multiple by-elections is likely to cost more than holding a by-election to fill the vacancies all at once. In Canada, in 1978, 15 by-elections were held on a single date , restoring the House of Commons to 264 members. The media called it a "mini-election",
6732-525: The by-election was independent candidate Kerryn Phelps . A huge 17.7% two-party-preferred swing was required for the Liberal Party to lose the seat. Ultimately, the Liberals suffered a 19.0% swing to Phelps, the largest by-election swing in Australian history, which won her the seat. This loss deprived the Liberal Party of its majority in federal Parliament, forcing them into a minority government . In 1942,
6831-563: The contingent vote passes, and fails all criteria the contingent vote fails. Since the voters in the two-round system do not have to choose their second round votes while voting in the first round, they are able to adjust their votes as players in a game . More complex models consider voter behavior when the voters reach a game-theoretical equilibrium from which they have no incentive, as defined by their internal preferences, to further change their behavior. However, because these equilibria are complex, only partial results are known. With respect to
6930-466: The effect of presidential approval on special election outcomes has increased in magnitude from 1995 to 2014, with the 2002 midterm representing an important juncture in the nationalization of special elections." Seats which have unexpectedly changed hands in by-elections often revert to the former party in the next general election. One reason for this is that voter turnout at by-elections tends to be lower and skewed toward highly motivated supporters of
7029-420: The election was not spoiled . French legislative elections allow more than two candidates to advance to the second round, leading to many triangular elections , such as in the 2024 French legislative election . It is common for all but two candidates to withdraw from the second round (so they don't spoil the chances of another similar candidate) which makes the result similar to top-two two-round systems. In
7128-436: The election. At the very least, their opponent would have to start taking the so-called weak candidate seriously, particularly if the runoff follows quickly after the first round. Runoff voting can be influenced by strategic nomination ; this is where candidates and political factions influence the result of an election by either nominating extra candidates or withdrawing a candidate who would otherwise have stood. Runoff voting
7227-430: The first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. This continues until one candidate has an absolute majority. Because voters may have to cast votes several times, EB is not used in large-scale public elections. Instead it is used in smaller contests such as the election of the presiding officer of an assembly; one long-standing example of its use is in the United Kingdom , where local associations (LCAs) of
7326-415: The first round, the top two candidates went into the second round. Most supporters of the parties which did not get through to the second round (and Chirac's supporters) voted for Chirac, who won with a very large majority: Despite the controversy over Jospin's early elimination, polls showed Chirac was preferred to Jospin by a majority of voters and that Chirac was the majority-preferred candidate , meaning
7425-455: The former member was elected as an independent . This is referred to as a substitute election ( Ersatzwahl ). Since no independents have been elected to the Bundestag since the first legislative period, no such substitute election has ever taken place. By-elections can be crucial when the ruling party has only a small majority. In parliamentary systems , party discipline is often so strong that
7524-617: The governing party or coalition can only lose a vote of no confidence after losing enough supporters, whether by floor-crossing or through losing by-elections, for it to become a minority government . Examples are the Labour government of James Callaghan 1976–1979 and Conservative government of John Major 1992–1997 . In the United States Senate , Scott Brown's election in 2010 ended the filibuster -proof supermajority formerly enjoyed by Democrats . By-elections can also be important if
7623-565: The interests of pensioners, and the party mainly focuses on issues related to health care, taxes and pensioners' issues. Lévai lives between Brussels and Budapest. She has a daughter, herself a journalist, Nóra Lakos. By-election A by-election , also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines , and a mother side argued as by-election or a bypoll in India ,
7722-488: The margin of victory relative to the district's normal performance may be relevant, other indicators generally provide stronger evidence with a larger sample size. A 2016 study of special elections to the United States House of Representatives found "that while candidate characteristics affect special election outcomes, presidential approval is predictive of special election outcomes as well. Furthermore, we find that
7821-456: The most successful unelected candidate named on the vacator's list fills the vacancy automatically. However, Turkey is an exception, as it holds by-elections when too many seats become vacant in the parliament (as in 1986 ) or a repeat vote has to be held (as in 2003 ). In multi-member district systems that do not employ party lists – single transferable vote , single non-transferable vote and plurality at-large – vacancies may be filled by
7920-642: The nation. Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a close race after Moore was accused of sexual assault by multiple women . Two-round system Condorcet methods Positional voting Cardinal voting Quota-remainder methods Approval-based committees Fractional social choice Semi-proportional representation By ballot type Pathological response Strategic voting Paradoxes of majority rule Positive results The two-round system ( TRS or 2RS ), also called ballotage , top-two runoff , or two-round plurality (as originally termed in French ),
8019-499: The new winner, with sitting members retaining their seats. Mixed-member proportional representation , additional member , and parallel voting systems, in which some members are chosen by party lists and some from single-member constituencies, usually hold by-elections to fill a vacancy in a constituency seat; for example, the assassination of Shinzo Abe resulted in a by-election in Yamaguchi's 4th district , which Abe represented in
8118-514: The opposition party. By-election upsets can have a psychological impact by creating a sense of momentum for one party or a sense of impending defeat for a government. For example, in Canada, Deborah Grey 's 1989 by-election victory in Beaver River was seen as evidence that the newly formed Reform Party of Canada would be a serious political contender and that it posed a serious political threat for
8217-413: The plurality method it is necessary to vote for one of the two leading candidates. Runoff voting is also vulnerable to another tactic called "push over". This is a tactic by which voters vote tactically for an unpopular "push over" candidate in the first round as a way of helping their true favorite candidate win in the second round. The purpose of voting for the push over, in theory, is to ensure that it
8316-531: The previous year's general election . His appointment as a senior minister while not a member of either house of Parliament was against convention, and he therefore sought to regularise the position by standing in the first available by-election, which was at Leyton in January 1965. However a strong swing against Labour resulted in Gordon Walker's defeat: as a result, he resigned as Foreign Secretary. In 2010, Republican Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in
8415-520: The region. Besides the active participation in the legislation process of the European Union, Lévai initiated several practical projects that offer direct services to the citizens and contribute to a more inclusive society in Hungary: the first Hungarian crisis-intervention centre was established for the victims of violence and the network of „Houses of Chances” is being built in all regions of Hungary with
8514-492: The resignation of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull , who had served as the member for Wentworth since 2004. Wentworth was considered an exceptionally safe seat for the Liberal Party , as it had only ever been held by the Liberal Party and its predecessor parties since its creation in 1901. Former Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma was preselected as the Liberal Party's candidate for the by-election. The major challenger in
8613-415: The result of the election by voting for a more popular candidate in the second round. However the tactic of compromising can still be used in runoff voting—it is sometimes necessary to compromise as a way of influencing which two candidates will survive to the second round. In order to do this it is necessary to vote for one of the three leading candidates in the first round, just as in an election held under
8712-410: The results of one round to decide how they will vote in the next, whereas this is not possible under IRV. Because it is necessary to vote only once, IRV is used for elections in many places. For such as Australian general and state elections (called preferential voting ). In the United States, it is known as ranked-choice voting and is used in a growing number of states and localities. In Ireland it
8811-463: The ruling Progressive Conservatives . Similarly, the upset 1960 by-election victory of Walter Pitman in Peterborough as a " New Party " candidate was a significant boost for the movement to replace the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation with an unnamed "New Party" which would be integrated with the labour movement. Pitman's candidacy in a riding in which the CCF was traditionally weak was seen as
8910-519: The same party to run in the first round) and in Mississippi and Georgia , though these two states first hold a partisan primary to select each parties' nominees. The states of California , Washington , and Alaska use a similar system known as a nonpartisan blanket primary , where the second round takes place whether or not a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round. Alaska's system also differs by advancing four candidates with
9009-400: The seat of Mundingburra where in the 1995 state election Wayne Goss and his Labor Party won by a slim 45-seat majority in a 89-seat parliament. The seat was decided by 16 votes but due to difficulties and irregularities in the voting led to a by-election where the rival Liberal Party won the seat pushing Goss' government in minority and with Independent Liz Cunningham teaming up to push
9108-490: The second round, so that one must receive an absolute majority of votes. Critics argue that the absolute majority obtained by the winner of runoff voting is an artificial one. Instant-runoff voting and the exhaustive ballot are two other voting methods that create an absolute majority for one candidate by eliminating weaker candidates over multiple rounds. However, in cases where there are three or more strong candidates, runoff voting will sometimes produce an absolute majority for
9207-400: The second round. Then, a second round is held using single-member districts with first-past-the-post . Most of the mathematical criteria by which voting methods are compared were formulated for voters with ordinal preferences. Some methods, like approval voting , request information than cannot be unambiguously inferred from a single set of ordinal preferences. The two-round system is such
9306-493: The system in 2010 , which was first used for the 36th congressional district special election in February 2011. The first election (the primary) is held before the general election in November and the top two candidates enter the general election. The general election is always held, even if a candidate gets over 50%. The exhaustive ballot (EB) is similar to the two-round system, but involves more rounds of voting rather than just two. If no candidate receives an absolute majority in
9405-471: The top-two candidates. However it involves only two rounds of counting and uses the same rule for eliminating candidates as the two-round system. After the first round all but the two candidates with most votes are eliminated. Therefore, one candidate always achieves an absolute majority in the second round. Because of these similarities, the contingent vote tends to elect the same winner as the two-round system and instant-runoff voting. In Australian politics ,
9504-476: The two major parties, e.g. "Coalition 45%, Labor 55%", where the values include both primary votes and preferences. The TPP is an indicator of how much swing has been attained/is required to change the result, taking into consideration later preferences. A two-party vote is used for elections to the Bhutanese National Assembly , where the first round selects two parties that are allowed to compete in
9603-473: The two remaining candidates and the parties and candidates who have been eliminated, sometimes resulting in the two successful candidates making policy concessions to the less successful ones. Because it encourages conciliation and negotiation in these ways, runoff voting is advocated, in various forms, by some supporters of deliberative democracy . Runoff voting is designed for single-seat constituencies. Therefore, like other single-seat methods, if used to elect
9702-467: The voters' internal preferences, the two-round system passes the majority criterion in this model, as a majority can always coordinate to elect their preferred candidate. Also, in the case of three candidates or less and a robust political equilibrium, the two-round system will pick the Condorcet winner whenever there is one, which is not the case in the contingent vote model. The equilibrium mentioned above
9801-466: Was the favourite to take the seat. Sinn Féin had done extremely well in the area during that year's local elections . Sinn Féin captured high percentages of the first preference vote across the constituency. However, the Anti-Austerity Alliance candidate, Paul Murphy , was elected on the eighth count. Although Murphy had received a lower first preference total than Cathal King, he outperformed
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