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In Politics , a landslide victory (or just a '''landslide''') is the victory of a candidate or Political Party by an overwhelming majority in an Election .

Landslides can occur when one candidate or party is perceived as far superior to their opponents, through unfair elections, or as a result of particular voting systems which may produce distorted or disproportionate results. See Bloc Voting , and the unanimous 2002 re-election of Iraq i president Saddam Hussein , criticised by external observers as a joke.

The opposite of a landslide is a Wipeout .
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Canada



Hong Kong

  • The and the Meeting Point , together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the Pro-democracy Camp , getting 17 of the 18 geographical constituency seats.

  • The , together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the Pro-democracy Camp , getting 17 of the 20 geographical constituency seats.



United Kingdom

In general, any British general election which results in a majority of over 100 seats tends to be described as a landslide. Notable examples include:

  • The overall majority of 356 (assuming Labour and Irish Nationalist support)

  • The 1918 Election : Coalition overall majority of 239

  • The overall majority of 209

  • The overall majority of 493

  • The overall majority of 146

  • The 1959 Election : Conservative overall majority of 100

  • The 1966 Election : Labour overall majority of 98

  • The 1983 Election : Conservative overall majority of 144

  • The 1997 Election : Labour overall majority of 179


Labour 's General Election Victory in 2001 with an overall majority of 167 was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media. Though the Government did score a very high majority, public interest in the election was not excited and, unlike most of the landslide results listed above, there was little change from the previous election and no change of governing party.

Landslides are relatively common in British electoral history, and this is partly as a result of the First-past-the-post electoral system. Relatively small differences in numbers of popular votes cast be amplified by the eventual result (for instance, Labour achieved a 66-seat majority in 2005 despite securing only 35% of the vote); conversely, parties can poll very highly and achieve disproportionately low numbers of MPs. In 1992 , for example, sitting Conservative Prime Minister John Major polled more votes than any party leader before or since, but was returned with a precarious majority of just 21. Summarily in 1983 the SDP-Liberal Alliance obtained 25% of the vote, 3% behind the labour party, but only won 23 seats (about 3%)


United States


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