Election - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Beginning in the early 1990s, the end of the Cold War and the reduction of military and economic aid from developed countries brought about democratization and competitive elections in more than a dozen African countries, including Benin, Mali, South Africa, and Zambia. Elections and the campaigns preceding them are dramatic events that are accompanied by rallies, banners, posters, buttons, headlines, and television coverage, all of which call attention to the importance of participation in the event. What's 'Bidenomics'? The president hopes a dubious nation embraces his This shows how parties have performed in each region in different elections. By-election definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary Add election to one of your lists below, or create a new one. Local government structure and elections - GOV.UK President Salva Kiir of South Sudan says his countrys long-delayed elections will take place in 2024 and that he will be on the ballot, New York City elections officials will begin releasing preliminary results from ranked choice voting in last weeks City Council primaries, A week after Guatemalas June 25 elections boosted a relative long-shot candidate into the final second round of voting, the countrys top court has frozen certification of the election results, Campaigning for Cambodias general election has officially begun, An Army combat veteran with extensive cybersecurity and counterterrorism experience is taking over as one of the nations top election security officials. election (lekn ) variable noun An election is a process in which people vote to choose a person or group of people to hold an official position. Gubernatorial election definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary Should election day be made a national holiday? A runoff election is most common in primary elections, where voters are choosing the candidates to run on the ballot for a . It is therefore important to understand what drives such policy surprises. Election definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary When 'thingamajig' and 'thingamabob' just won't do, A simple way to keep them apart. Benoit, Jean-Pierre and Lewis A. Kornhauser. Nonvoting was another form of protest, especially as local communist activists were under extreme pressure to achieve nearly a 100 percent turnout. While in the first elections, there may be plenty of hopeful candidates, in the last rounds consensus on one winner is generally achieved. [2], In the Vedic period[specify] of India, the raja (king) of a gaa (a tribal organization) was elected by the gaa. (lkn kmpen ) noun a time when a politician or party try to persuade people to vote for them During his election campaign he promised to put the economy back on its feet. The Conservatives won the most MPs, but they did not have an overall majority. Candidates, political parties, and interest groups representing diverse objectives invoke the symbols of nationalism or patriotism, reform or revolution, past glory or future promise. Election | History, Polls, Results, Date, & Facts | Britannica Other states (e.g., the United Kingdom) only set maximum time in office, and the executive decides exactly when within that limit it will actually go to the polls. Problems that prevent an election from being "free and fair" take various forms.[23]. In 2018 the most intense interventions, utilizing false information, were by China in Taiwan and by Russia in Latvia; the next highest levels were in Bahrain, Qatar and Hungary.[25]. In some countries, voting is required by law. This calculation depends on a number of variables, such as its performance in opinion polls and the size of its majority. General election Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster Election is the fact of electing, or being elected. Nonpartisanship in the United States started as a reform movement in the early 20th century and was intended in part to isolate local politics from politics at the state and national levels. ELECTION CAMPAIGN | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary Updates? [14], Questions of suffrage, especially suffrage for minority groups, have dominated the history of elections. Because direct democracya form of government in which political decisions are made directly by the entire body of qualified citizensis impractical in most modern societies, democratic government must be conducted through representatives. Election - Representation, Voter Choice, Accountability | Britannica Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Author of. Many democratic countries also have regional, provincial or state elections. When you turn 18, you can vote in a general election to choose who you want to be . PDF Elections: who does what - Electoral Commission choice suggests the opportunity or privilege of choosing freely. Voting is a process by which a group of people can decide things fairly when they do not all agree. [24] Primary election - Wikipedia In some systems no nominations take place at all, with voters free to choose any person at the time of votingwith some possible exceptions such as through a minimum age requirementin the jurisdiction. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. DIRECT ELECTION definition | Cambridge English Dictionary Unanticipated changes in tax policy are likely to have different macroeconomic effects compared to anticipated changes due to several mechanisms, including fiscal foresight and policy uncertainty. What elections do is select representatives for the local areas. [31][32][33], Ballots may contain only one "yes" option, or in the case of a simple "yes or no" question, security forces often persecute people who pick "no", thus encouraging them to pick the "yes" option. In many of the countries with weak rule of law, the most common reason why elections do not meet international standards of being "free and fair" is interference from the incumbent government. General election - Wikipedia Kennedy claims his campaign is "largely misunderstood" in the media, with most coverage including misstatements about his beliefs or taking his words out of . Elections were used as early in history as ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and throughout the Medieval period to select rulers such as the Holy Roman Emperor (see imperial election) and the pope (see papal election). Individual votes are translated into collective decisions by a wide variety of rules of counting that voters and leaders have accepted as legitimate prior to the election. Countries that are not democracies can also hold elections. : an act or process of electing the election of a new governor b : the fact of being elected her election to the Senate 2 : predestination to eternal life 3 : the right, power, or privilege of making a choice Synonyms choice choosing picking selecting selection See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus Choose the Right Synonym for election They get a ballot paper, which lists all the candidates - that's the people who want to be that area's MP. For more on the debate about making election day a national holiday, visit ProCon.org. [20], A representative democracy requires a procedure to govern nomination for political office. Whether the United States should use the Electoral College in presidential elections is heavily debated. In Mexico, all of the presidential elections from 1929 to 1982 are considered to be sham elections, as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its predecessors governed the country in a de facto single-party system without serious opposition, and they won all of the presidential elections in that period with more than 70% of the vote. Election - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com We use some essential cookies to make this website work. An election is a way people can choose their candidate or their preferences in a representative democracy or other form of government.[1]. This happened in 2017. In a direct democracy, one type of non-partisan democracy, any eligible person can be nominated. Such elections were quite common in contemporary societies of the region. when war breaks out). Moore v. Harper: what the SCOTUS decision means for free and fair elections A predetermined conclusion is permanently established by the regime through suppression of the opposition, coercion of voters, vote rigging, reporting several votes received greater than the number of voters, outright lying, or some combination of these. The legislature chooses the government, usually by majority vote in the legislature. Electorates have only a limited power to determine government policies. For example, in the United Kingdom, university graduates and owners of businesses in constituencies other than those in which they lived could cast more than one ballot until 1948. Argentina, Brazil and Austria are among the few countries where the legal voting age is 16. From one day to the next (Phrases with day, Part 1), Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023. Re-election Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com 1. 2. Harper: what the SCOTUS decision means for free and fair elections. and the voting system then determines the result on the basis of the tally. To vote in a general election you must: be registered to vote; be 18 or over on the day of the election . [36], Examples of sham elections include: the presidential and parliamentary elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran,[37] the 1929 and 1934 elections in Fascist Italy, the 1942 general election in Imperial Japan, those in Nazi Germany, East Germany, the 1940 elections of Stalinist "People's Parliaments" to legitimise the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the 1928, 1935, 1942, 1949, 1951 and 1958 elections in Portugal, the 1991 and 2019 Kazakh presidential elections, those in North Korea,[38] the 1995 and 2002 presidential referendums in Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the 2021 Hong Kong legislative election.[39]. They mark the ballot paper with a cross next to the name of the candidate they most want to represent them. 'pa pdd chac-sb tc-bd bw hbr-20 hbss lpt-25' : 'hdn'">. An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Send us feedback about these examples. United States midterm elections, general elections that occur every four years in the middle of the U.S. presidential term. Authoritarian regimes often have used elections as a way to achieve a degree of popular legitimacy. 1 - What Is Election Interference? - Cambridge University Press This person will represent a local area (constituency) in the House of Commons for up to five years. primary election, in the United States, an election to select candidates to run for public office. Election Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster President Joe Biden has long struggled to neatly summarize his sprawling economic vision. Even nonvoting satisfies the need of some people to express their alienation from the political community. Every five years Parliament is automatically dissolved. [2] However, by 1920 all Western European and North American democracies had universal adult male suffrage (except Switzerland) and many countries began to consider women's suffrage. A wide variety of electoral systems exist for apportioning legislative seats. Although many of them reverted to authoritarian forms of rule, there were exceptions (e.g., Botswana and Gambia). In the United States, elections for public offices are typically held between every two and six years in most states and at the federal level, with exceptions for elected judicial positions that may have longer terms of office. For other uses, see, "Free election" redirects here. choice, option, alternative, preference, selection, election mean the act or opportunity of choosing or the thing chosen. Such elections require not only the active participation of political parties to ensure competition and form a government, but also to legitimise the government. Whilst the process of electing an individual as a representative in a government can be simple, many election candidates spend mass amounts of money on their campaigns. In political terms, it took an argument for boycotting the elections away from the opposition and provided it with an added incentive to participate. noun. election plurality system, electoral process in which the candidate who polls more votes than any other candidate is elected. This can happen when an MP: resigns or dies is declared bankrupt takes a seat in the House of Lords is convicted of a serious criminal offence. Many countries have growing electoral reform movements, which advocate systems such as approval voting, single transferable vote, instant runoff voting or a Condorcet method; these methods are also gaining popularity for lesser elections in some countries where more important elections still use more traditional counting methods. [46] Those in favor of this view argue that the modern system of elections was never meant to give ordinary citizens the chance to exercise power - merely privileging their right to consent to those who rule. Even with the implementation of universal suffrage, the ideal of one person, one vote was not achieved in all countries. Reuven Hazan, 'Candidate Selection', in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard Niemi and Pippa Norris (eds), Legislative Assemblies of the Roman Republic, elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1940 elections of Stalinist "People's Parliaments", "Solon | Biography, Reforms, Importance, & Facts", "Failure to Vote | Western Australian Electoral Commission", "Exhibitions > Citizenship > The struggle for democracy > Getting the vote > Voting rights before 1832", "India's spend on elections could challenge US record: report", "When the Great Power Gets a Vote: The Effects of Great Power Electoral Interventions on Election Results", Democracy Facing Global Challenges, V-Dem Annual Democracy Report 2019, p.36, "N.C. board declares a new election in contested House race after the GOP candidate admitted he was mistaken in his testimony", "Kim Jong-un wins 100% of the vote in his constituency", "Yemen holds presidential election with one candidate", "Egyptian opposition calls for boycott of elections after challengers are arrested and attacked", "Alexei Navalny latest: Russian opposition leader arrested ahead of presidential election", "Yes, There Are Elections in North Korea and Here's How They Work - The Atlantic", "Burma: 20 Years After 1990 Elections, Democracy Still Denied", "Why Does The Islamic Republic Of Iran Hold Elections? When they are done, they will announce the result in a speech, called Habemus Papam (Latin: We have a pope), Elections keep a democratic country functioning, as they give people the right to select their own government. MPs are elected using the First Past the Post system. However, there are ways a government can "fix" elections. Switzerland uses referenda and initiatives extensively at the local and regional levels as well, as does the United States. By-election definition, a special election, not held at the time of a general election, to fill a vacancy in Parliament. Copyright HarperCollins Publishers Word Frequency If neither of these options work for any party, then there will be another election. Examples are the presidential primaries in the United States, Elections to the European Parliament (where, due to differing election laws in each member state, elections are held on different days of the same week) and, due to logistics, general elections in Lebanon and India. There are several different types of local elections in the UK.. The global use of elections as a tool for selecting representatives in modern representative democracies is in contrast with the practice in the democratic archetype, ancient Athens, where the elections were considered an oligarchic institution and most political offices were filled using sortition, also known as allotment, by which officeholders were chosen by lot.[1]. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections. It just Pre-decided or fixed election dates have the advantage of fairness and predictability. Although it is common to equate representative government and elections with democracy, and although competitive elections under universal suffrage are one of democracys defining characteristics, universal suffrage is not a necessary condition of competitive electoral politics. For precisely these reasons, the long battle for the right to vote and the demand for equality in electoral participation can be viewed as the manifestation of a profound human craving for personal fulfillment. election, the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting. For example, in Switzerland and the United States, fewer than half the electorate vote in most elections. re-election definition: 1. the act of electing someone again to the same position: 2. the act of electing someone again to. Author of, Chair, British and Comparative Politics, University of Sussex, Brighton, England. ELECTION | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary For the "free elections" of Polish kings, see, Lack of open political debate or an informed electorate. At the same time the Kingdom of Great Britain had in 1780 about 214,000 eligible voters, 3% of the whole population. A runoff election is a second election. Should election day be made a national holiday? Elections with an electorate in the hundred thousands appeared in the final decades of the Roman Republic, by extending voting rights to citizens outside of Rome with the Lex Julia of 90 BC, reaching an electorate of 910,000 and estimated voter turnout of maximum 10% in 70 BC,[19] only again comparable in size to the first elections of the United States. Germany's far-Right party won a local election for the first time in their ten-year history, marking a "black day" for the country's democracy, opponents said. General elections (elections to the UK Parliament) usually take place every 5 years. There is a variety of schedules, for example, presidents: the President of Ireland is elected every seven years, the President of Russia and the President of Finland every six years, the President of France every five years, President of the United States every four years. 2023. In practice, legislative electoral systems can be classified into three broad categories: plurality and majority systems (collectively known as majoritarian systems); proportional systems; and hybrid, or semiproportional, systems. However, in the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in the municipality and is an EU citizen; the nationality of the country of residence is not required. Some say a holiday would increase voter turnout by enabling more people to vote while celebrating democracy. [34][35], Sham elections can sometimes backfire against the party in power, especially if the regime believes they are popular enough to win without coercion or fraud. Click on a collocation to see more examples of it. Such views were expressed as early as the time of Ancient Greece by Aristotle. What Is a Runoff Election? - FindLaw Politicians across the UK will now have their work cut out to win (or keep) their seat in the House of Commons. election, the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting. Voters might vote for an individual, or they might vote for a political party (party list). An election is the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting. The movement abolishing the so-called rotten boroughselectoral districts of small population controlled by a single person or familythat culminated in the Reform Act of 1832 (one of three major Reform Bills in the 19th century in Britain that expanded the size of the electorate) was a direct consequence of this individualistic conception of representation. Finally, elections serve a self-actualizing purpose by confirming the worth and dignity of individual citizens as human beings. ADJECTIVES/NOUN + election fair (= with no unfair advantage to one person or group) The ruling party has promised that the elections will be fair. 1994. What is a local election? Published results usually show nearly 100% voter turnout and high support (typically at least 80%, and close to 100% in many cases) for the prescribed candidate(s) or for the referendum choice that favours the political party in power. the act or occasion of being chosen for a particular job, esp. "Le systme lectoral et son effet sur la reprsentation parlementaire des partis: le cas europen", LGDJ; This page was last edited on 11 June 2023, at 21:46. If one is held earlier than expected - like the government wants to do this time - this is called a snap election. Although legal or self-imposed exclusion can dramatically affect public policy and even undermine the legitimacy of a government, it does not preclude decision making by election, provided that voters are given genuine alternatives among which to choose. 13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a, The Electoral College vs The College of Registered Voters. [.] A general election gives adults in the UK the chance to have a say on who runs the country. By-election Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com In the 1950s and 60s, a number of countries held elections following decolonization. It affects civil servants, who must be politically impartial, [1] preventing central and local government from making announcements about any new or . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Like most populist innovations, the practice of recalling officeholders is an attempt to minimize the influence of political parties on representatives. From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. violation of the secret ballot, ballot stuffing, tampering with voting machines,[27]