Alandslide 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. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.[1]
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]
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.
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.
The following Canadian federal elections resulted in landslide victories:[6]
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 Québecois, which ran only in Québec, won 54. The ruling Progressive Conservatives dropped from 154 to 2.
1953 – First election after the Civil War, war caudillo José Figueres Ferrer wins 67% of the votes over Democratic candidate Fernando Castro Cervantes, after this Costa Rica enters a pretty stable two-party system.
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.
1995 – The pro-democracy camp swept 16 of the 20 directly elected geographical constituency seats in which the Democratic Party alone took 12 directly elected seats.
2021 – The pro-Beijing camp took 89 out of 90 seats in the Legislative Council. Many democratic candidates had been barred from running, and turnout was extremely low.
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.
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/LabourNational 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.
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%.
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.
2018 – Left-wing Andrés Manuel López Obrador wins with 53% of the votes, his closest rival is PAN's Ricardo Anaya with 22%, the highest amount of the post-PRI era. Most elections before 2000 had PRI winning by a landslide victory however due to Mexico's de facto one party system at the time, these elections are generally considered to be undemocratic.
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.[12]
1972 election – The Labour Party won 55 seats while the National Party won just 32 seats.[13]
1975 election – The National Party won 55 seats while the Labour Party won just 32 seats.[13]
1984 election – The Labour Party won 56 seats while the National Party won just 37 seats.[13]
1990 election – The National Party won 67 seats while the Labour Party won just 29 seats.[13]
MMP
2002 election – The Labour Party won 52 seats while the National Party won just 27 seats.[14]
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.[15]
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)[16]
2022: The Pangu Pati, led by James Marape, was re-elected following a landslide victory. The Pangu Pati won 39 of the 113 seats in the National Parliament, gaining 30 seats. In contrast, the People's National Congress, led by former Prime MinisterPeter O'Neill, won 17 seats, losing 11 seats. However, no party won a majority of seats (57 seats needed for a majority).
Ramon Magsaysay (light green)'s 1953 landslide victory.
In1941, 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.
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.
1998 – Joseph Estrada won with 40% of the vote. His main opponent, Jose de Venecia, received just 16%, or a margin of 24%. De Venecia's running mate, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, won with almost 50% of the vote. Her main opponent, Estrada's running mate Edgardo Angara, received just 22%, or a margin of about 28%.
2019 – The ruling party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago won 9 of the 12 seats contested. Their main opponents, Otso Diretso won no seats. The other 3 seats went to other parties.
House of Representatives
1907 – The Nacionalista Party won 59 of 80 seats. The Progresista Party won 16. From 1907 to 1919, the Nacionalistas won every election in large margins, as they advocated Philippine independence from the United States, over their opponents' more conservative approach to the issue. From 1922 to 1935, the Nacionalistas were split into factions, until they were reunited in time for the 1938 election.
1938 – The Nacionalista Party won all 98 seats. This was the only time that the House of Representatives had no members from the opposition.
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
1976 – António Ramalho Eanes, supported by the center-right and center-left political parties secured 61.6% of the total vote, while the second most voted candidate, FP-25 leader Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, got 16.5% of the vote.
2006 – Aníbal Cavaco Silva, supported by the center-right parties, secured 50.5% of the votes in the first turn. Second most voted candidate, socialistManuel Alegre would only secure 20.7%.
2011 – Incumbent president, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, supported by the center-right parties achieved 53% of the total voting, the second most voted candidate, socialistManuel Alegre would only score 19.7%.
2016 — Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, supported by the center-right parties and benefiting from bigger media exposure than the rest of the candidates secured 52% of the votes in the first turn. Second most voted candidate António Sampaio da Nóvoa would only score 23% of voting.
2021 – Incumbent president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, would renew his term receiving 60.6% of the total voting, whilst the second most voted candidate, socialistMEPAna Gomes received only 13% of the votes. Rebelo de Sousa became the first presidential candidate to win in all the municipalities.
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.
2016 – The Human Rights Protection Party, led by Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi, won by a landslide victory, winning 35 of the 49 seats in the Legislative Assembly, gaining six seats. The main opposition party, the Tautua Samoa Party (led by Palusalue Faʻapo II) only won two seats, losing 11 seats. Independents won 13 seats.[18]
1982 and 1986 – Felipe González's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) won two consecutive blowouts, with advantages of 22 and 18 percentage points over the second party, Manuel Fraga's right-wing People's Alliance, which scored just over one hundred seats and won only one region, Galicia. In 1982, PSOE won over 200 seats, the only time this has been achieved by a sole party.
2011 – local, regional and national elections were all landslide wins for the then-in opposition Mariano Rajoy's PP, winning the national election by a 16 percentage point margin to then-ruling PSOE.
2001 – Juan 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.
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.
2020 – Tsai Ing-wen won a record 8.17 million votes for her second term, representing 57.1% of the popular vote, while Han Kuo-yu of Kuomintang took 38.6%. In the legislative election, the ruling party Democratic Progressive Party won 61 seats while Kuomintang won 38 seats.
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.
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.[19][20][21][22]
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 Partyin 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).[23][24]
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).[25]
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.[26]
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.[27]
2019 – Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party 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.[28]
2024 – Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to win 411 seats (an increase of 209, the party's highest seat count since 2001) and a majority of 172 seats, while the Conservative Party led by Rishi Sunak won 121 seats (a decrease of 244), the party's worst ever result, exceeding the previous worst defeat of 1906.[29]
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.
1804 – Thomas Jefferson (D-R) received 162 (92%) of the electoral votes while Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Federalist) received only 14 (8%). Jefferson won 72.8% of the popular vote, the highest margin of victory in any presidential election with multiple major candidates, although several states did not record the popular vote.
1872 – Ulysses S. Grant (R) received 286 (81.9%) of the electoral votes while four candidates split the remaining 66 due to the death of Horace Greeley (D).
1912 – Woodrow Wilson (D) received 435 (81.9%) of the electoral votes while Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) received 88 (16.6%) and William Howard Taft (R) received only 8 (1.5%)—the worst showing ever by an incumbent president. Wilson won just 41.8% of the popular vote in the three-way race, compared to 27.4% for Roosevelt and 23.2% for Taft.
1936 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) received 523 (98.5%) of the electoral votes—the largest share since 1820 and the largest in a non-unanimous election—while Alf Landon (R) received only 8 (1.5%). Additionally, Roosevelt received 60.8% of the popular vote.
1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson (D) received 486 (90.3%) of the electoral votes while Barry Goldwater (R) received only 52 (9.7%). Additionally, Johnson received 61.1% of the popular vote.
