Snap election facts for kids

A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to decide a pressing issue, under circumstances when an election is not required by law or convention. A snap election differs from a recall election in that it is initiated by politicians (usually the head of government or ruling party) rather than voters, and from a by-election in that a completely new parliament is chosen as opposed to merely filling vacancies in an already established assembly. Early elections can also be called in certain jurisdictions after a ruling coalition is dissolved if a replacement coalition cannot be formed within a constitutionally set time limit.

Since the power to call snap elections (the dissolution of parliament) usually lies with the incumbent, they often result in increased majorities for the party already in power provided they have been called at an advantageous time. However, snap elections can also backfire on the incumbent resulting in a decreased majority or in some cases the opposition winning or gaining power. As a result of the latter cases, there have been occasions in which the consequence has been the implementation of fixed-term elections.

Canada

In Canada, snap elections at the federal level are very common. Section 50 of the Constitution Act, 1867 and section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms limits the maximum life of a federal parliament to five years following the return of the last writs of election. A law was passed to set the election date on the third Monday in October in the fourth calendar year after the previous poll, although courts found it effectively legally unenforceable and not binding on the prime minister. Any election that occurs before the schedule is a snap election.

During his 10 years as prime minister, Jean Chrétien recommended to the governor general to call two snap elections, in 1997 and 2000, winning both times. Wilfrid Laurier and John Turner, meanwhile, both lost their premierships in snap elections they themselves had called (in 1911 and 1984, respectively). The most notable federal snap election is that of 1958, where Prime Minister John Diefenbaker called an election just nine months after the previous one and transformed his minority government into the largest majority in the history of Canada up to that date.

A snap election was also called in the province of Ontario in 1990, three years into Premier David Peterson's term. Peterson was polling at 54%, lower than his peak popularity but still well above the opposition party leaders, and expected to be re-elected with comfortable majority. However, the 1990 Ontario general election backfired since it was interpreted as a sign of arrogance, with some cynically viewing it as an attempt to win another mandate before an anticipated economic recession. In the biggest upset in Ontario history, the Ontario New Democratic Party led by Bob Rae won an unprecedented majority government while Peterson lost his own seat to a rookie NDP candidate. A similar result occurred in Alberta in 2015 when Premier Jim Prentice of the governing Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta called a snap election. A few months before, 11 MLAs including their leader from the official opposition Wildrose Party had crossed the floor to sit with the government. However, the province was entering an economic recession due to the abrupt 2010s oil glut, and Prentice's budget was not well received by either the political left or right. The resulting Alberta New Democratic Party majority victory unseated 13 cabinet ministers and ended 44 years of Progressive Conservative government in Alberta.

In 2021, sitting Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a snap election in an attempt to win a majority, up from his previous minority government. He justified the snap election as a way for Canadians to choose which government leads them through Canada's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Trudeau was widely criticized for calling the snap election while the country was in the midst of a 4th wave of Covid. Following the election Trudeau managed to remain Prime Minister, but the Liberal Party failed to win a majority government.

Australia

There are three procedures in which federal elections can be held early in Australia:

• The maximum term of the Australian House of Representatives is 3 years. However, the chamber can wait several months after the election to make its first sitting, while a campaign period of at least 33 days is needed between the dates that the election is called and held. It is the norm for the chamber to be dissolved early by the Governor-General before its term expires, which is done on the advice of the Prime Minister.
• Half of the Australian Senate (excluding the seats representing territories) changes over every three years in July. An election for the half about to change over must take place up to a year before this is due, on a date determined by the government. By convention, the elections of both chambers have usually been held on the same day. If the previous Senate election was held close to the changeover, the next Senate election can be held significantly earlier.
• A double dissolution may be called to resolve conflict between the two chambers, in which case the entire membership of both chambers comes up for election. This requires at least one bill that originated in the House of Representatives (often called a "trigger") to be rejected twice by the Senate under certain conditions. In this case, the next Senate changeover is due in the second month of July after the election, while the House of Representatives begins a new 3-year term.

Examples of early elections in Australia:

• 1963 election: Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies called an early election for the House of Representatives because the government were struggling to govern with their narrow 2-seat majority in the chamber. The government succeeded in gaining 10 seats. The election left the House and Senate elections out of synchronization until 1974.
• 1974 election: The double dissolution election focused on Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's first 1+1⁄2 years in office and whether the Australian public was willing to continue with his reform agenda, and also to break a deadlock in the Senate after Opposition Leader Billy Snedden announced that the opposition would block the Government's supply bills in the Senate following the Gair Affair. The Whitlam government was subsequently returned with a reduced majority in the House of Representatives but increased presence (but no majority) in the Senate, allowing the government to pass six reform bills in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Australian parliament.
• 1975 election: The election followed the controversial dismissal of the Whitlam government by Governor-General Sir John Kerr in the 1975 constitutional crisis and the installation of Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister. Labor believed it had a chance of winning the elections, and that the dismissal would be an electoral asset for them but the Coalition attacked Labor for the economic conditions they presided over, resulting in the Coalition winning a record victory, with 91 seats in the House of Representatives to the ALP's 36 and a 35–27 majority in the expanded Senate.
• 1983 election: While an election was not due for seven more months, Malcolm Fraser had been emboldened by the unexpected victory in a 1982 by election which his Liberal Party was expected to lose. Fraser also sought to exploit divisions in the opposition Labor Party, and was surprised to learn that the popular Bob Hawke had won the Labor Party leadership on the day he sought a dissolution. Ultimately, Labor won power and defeated the Fraser government on a 24-seat swing—the largest defeat of a sitting government since 1949, and the worst defeat a sitting non-Labor government has ever suffered.
• 1984 election: This election was held 18 months ahead of time in order to bring the elections for the House of Representatives and Senate back into line. They had been thrown out of balance by the double dissolution of 1983. It was widely expected that the incumbent Hawke Labor government would be easily re-elected, but an exceptionally long 10-week campaign, confusion over the ballot papers and a strong campaign performance by Liberal leader, Andrew Peacock, saw the government's majority reduced (although this was disguised by the increase in the size of the House from 125 to 148).
• 1998 election: The election on 3 October 1998 was held six months earlier than required by the Constitution. Prime Minister John Howard made the announcement following the launch of the coalition's Goods and Services Tax (GST) policy launch and a five-week advertising campaign. The ensuing election was almost entirely dominated by the proposed 10% GST and proposed income tax cuts.
• 2010 election: A federal election was held on Saturday, 21 August 2010, which was called relatively early in order to give Prime Minister Julia Gillard – who had won the prime ministership outside of an election from Kevin Rudd – a greater mandate. The election ended in a hung parliament, and a resultant retaining of Labor's majority in the House of Representatives after negotiations with independents and the Greens.
• 2021 Tasmanian state election: Liberal Premier Peter Gutwein called the election a year early after the Liberal majority government fell into a minority government. The Liberals won the 2021 state election with a majority of one seat, with Labor forming opposition and the crossbench being composed of Greens and independents.
• 2024 Tasmanian state election: Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff called the election a year early for the same reason as Gutwein (his predecessor).

In the states and territories, all except Tasmania have fixed election dates legislated into their constitutions or electoral laws and snap elections can only be called in extraordinary circumstances when certain conditions are met (loss of confidence, loss of supply or, in the bicameral legislatures, a deadlocked bill). In Western Australia, the Premier retains the ability to call a snap election at any time despite the fixed election dates. In the Australian Capital Territory, the federal government also has the ability to call a snap election in instances of incapacitation or gross misconduct of the Legislative Assembly. As federal territories constituted under federal legislation, the federal parliament also has the ultimate power to call a snap election in the ACT and the Northern Territory through the normal legislative process, although this has never occurred.

New Zealand

New Zealand elections must be held every three years, and the date is determined by the prime minister. There have been three snap elections, in 1951, 1984 and 2002.

• The 1951 snap election occurred immediately after the 1951 waterfront dispute, in which the National Party government sided with shipping companies against a militant union, while the Labour opposition equivocated and thus annoyed both sides. The government was returned with an increased majority.
• The 1984 snap election occurred during a term in which the National Party government had a majority of only one seat. Prime Minister Robert Muldoon lost patience with his less obedient MPs and called an election. Muldoon's government subsequently lost and the Labour Party took power.
• The 2002 election. On 12 June 2002 the Labour Party Prime Minister Helen Clark announced that the country would have a general election on 27 July 2002. Clark claimed that an early poll was necessary due to the collapse of her junior coalition partner, the Alliance, but denied it was a snap election. This early election caused considerable comment. Critics claimed that Clark could have continued to govern, and that the early election was called to take advantage of Labour's strong position in the polls. The National Party was caught unprepared by the election and suffered its worst ever result (20.9% of the party vote), and the government was returned with an increased majority.

Spain

• 2011 general election: The Cortes Generales were dissolved and the general election called by King Juan Carlos I on 26 September, at the request of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who had already announced his intention to call for a snap election on 28 July.
• 2016 general election: After no party secured a majority in the 2015 general election and with ensuing negotiations leading to political deadlock, a fresh election was called for 26 June—the first time in Spanish recent history that an election was triggered as a result of failure in the government formation process.
• 2023 general election. A general election was originally due to take place in December 2023. However, after losing majorities in many regional parliaments and local councils in the 28 May 2023 local elections, Prime minister Pedro Sánchez announced a snap election to be held on 23 July.

United Kingdom

The prime minister of the United Kingdom has the de facto power to call an election at will by requesting a dissolution from the monarch; the limited circumstances where this would not be granted are set out in the Lascelles Principles. If this does not happen, parliament dissolves automatically after five years, but this never happens; so in effect, most elections since the length of parliament was first limited in 1694, except the one in 2015 (the date for which was fixed by law), have technically been snap elections. The term is thus normally reserved in the British context for elections called significantly earlier than required (after five years since 1911, or after seven years prior to that).

Fixed-term Parliaments Act

From 2011 to 2022, the conditions for when a snap election could be called were significantly restricted by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) to occasions when the government loses a confidence motion or when a two-thirds supermajority of MPs vote in favour. During autumn 2019 there were three attempts to trigger an election through the FTPA's provision for a two-thirds majority: all failed. Then the FTPA was bypassed entirely by Parliament enacting the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 stipulating a set date for the next election: the 2019 general election. This required only a simple majority, because of the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy: Parliament cannot pass a law that cannot be changed or reversed by a future Parliament. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act was repealed on March 24, 2022 by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, which restored the Monarch's power to dissolve parliament on request by the Prime Minister. This is thought to have revived the Lascelles Principles as well.

History

The following elections were called by a voluntary decision of the government less than four years after the previous election:

• 1923 general election: Although the Conservative Party had won a working majority in the House of Commons after Bonar Law's victory in the 1922 general election, Stanley Baldwin called an election only a year later. Baldwin sought a mandate to raise tariffs, which Law had promised against in the previous election, as well as desiring to gain a personal mandate to govern and strengthen his position within the party. This backfired, as the election resulted in a hung parliament. Following losing a confidence motion in January 1924, Baldwin resigned and was replaced by Ramsay MacDonald, who formed the country's first ever Labour minority government with tacit support from the Liberal Party.
• 1931 general election: Following his government split over how to deal with the Great Depression, Ramsay MacDonald offered his resignation to the King in August 1931. He was instead persuaded to form a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals, which resulted in his expulsion from the Labour Party. The Cabinet then decided to call the election to obtain a Doctor's Mandate to fix the economy. The result was that the National Government won the biggest landslide in British history. Labour, which was blamed for running away from responsibility as a Government in the nation's hour of need, was reduced to just 52 seats and its leader, Arthur Henderson, lost his seat.
• 1951 general election: Despite the fact the Conservatives were leading in the polls, Clement Attlee called the election to increase his government's majority, which had been reduced to just five seats in the previous general election. The Labour Party was defeated and Winston Churchill returned to power with a majority of 17.
• 1955 general election: After Winston Churchill retired in April 1955, Anthony Eden took over and immediately called the election in order to gain a mandate for his government.
• 1966 general election: Harold Wilson called the election seventeen months after Labour narrowly won the 1964 general election: The government had won a barely-workable majority of four seats, which had been reduced to two following the Leyton by-election in January 1965. Labour won a decisive victory, with a majority of 98 seats.
• February 1974 general election: Prime Minister Edward Heath called the election in order to get a mandate to face down a miners' strike. The election unexpectedly produced a hung parliament in which Labour narrowly won more seats, despite winning fewer votes than the Conservatives. Unable to form a coalition with the Liberals, Heath resigned and was replaced by Wilson.
• October 1974 general election: Six months following the February election, Wilson called another general election in an attempt to win a majority for his Labour minority government and resolve the deadlock. Wilson was successful, though Labour only held a narrow 3-seat majority.

Gordon Brown came very close to calling a snap election in the autumn of 2007; after he failed to do this, his popularity and authority greatly declined and he lost power in 2010.

The following elections were forced by a motion of no confidence against the will of the government:

• 1924 general election: Ramsay MacDonald was forced to call the election after a successful vote of no confidence as a result of the Campbell Case. It was the third general election in three years. The result was a landslide victory for Baldwin and the Conservatives.
• 1979 general election: This election was held six months before the latest possible date. It was called when the minority Labour government of James Callaghan lost a confidence motion, which had been proposed by the SNP in the aftermath of the Scottish devolution referendum and was taken forward by the Conservatives, by one vote. The Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher, won a majority of seats at the election.

The following two elections were called by the will of Parliament while the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was in force:

• 2017 general election: In April 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May tabled a motion in the House of Commons for an early general election in the form detailed in section 2(2) of the 2011 Act, which was approved in Parliament by a near-unanimous vote. This was shortly after the official commencement of the process of withdrawing from the European Union (Brexit), with May saying that she needed a clear mandate to lead the country through the ensuing negotiations, and hoping to increase her Conservative Party's majority. The election was a failure for May, with the Conservative Party losing seats, resulting in a hung parliament and a minority Conservative government with a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party.
• 2019 general election: In September and October 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seeking a mandate and a majority to break the parliamentary deadlock on his Brexit deal, failed on several occasions to pass a section 2(2) motion for an early general election due to its requirement for a two-thirds majority. After failing to force the deal through with minimal scrutiny via a long prorogation that was ruled unlawful, he introduced a bill to bypass the 2011 Act, requiring only a simple majority in both houses. The bill passed and the Conservatives gained an 80 seat majority in the subsequent election, allowing the United Kingdom to leave the European Union the following January.

Devolved governments

The devolved UK administrations (the Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament, and the Senedd; established in 1998, 1999, and 1998 respectively) are also elected for fixed terms of government (four years prior to 2011, five years thereafter), but snap elections can still be called in the event of a motion of no confidence, or other special circumstances.

• 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election: Held ten months after the previous Assembly election. Following the resignation of Sinn Féin deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness over various issues and scandals with his party's DUP coalition partners, and the subsequent refusal of Sinn Féin to nominate a new deputy First Minister, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire was legally obliged to call a snap election to attempt to restore a functional devolved government. This election took place on 2 March 2017. The DUP and Sinn Féin remained the two largest parties following the election, but did not reach an agreement to share power until January 2020.

See also

In Spanish: Elección anticipada para niños