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Hung parliament

 
Political Dictionary: hung parliament

Name for the situation when after an election no political party has an overall majority in the UK House of Commons. Without a written constitution the response to such a circumstance is governed by statements by courtiers and senior civil servants as to what the constitution requires the monarch to do. The most famous of these statements were by Sir Alan Lascelles, private secretary to George VI, in a letter to The Times in 1950, and by Lord Armstrong, secretary to the cabinet between 1979 and 1987, in a radio interview in 1991. The incumbent prime minister may continue in office and offer a queen's/king's speech: that is, a speech delivered by the monarch but written by the government, outlining its programme. This is likely only if the prime minister's party still has the largest number of seats, or a pact with another party can be engineered to ensure an overall majority. If the prime minister cannot command the largest party in the Commons and has no pact then the prime minister may ask the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call a further election. In the absence of precedent it remains unclear whether the monarch would be obliged to accede to this request. More likely, the prime minister would resign and advise the monarch upon a successor. Usually the monarch would heed that advice, although in the last resort the monarch is not bound to do so. The new prime minister would then form a government and if a working majority could again not be sustained, a dissolution of Parliament and calling of a second election would be sought and gained from the monarch.

— Jonathan Bradbury

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Wikipedia: Hung parliament
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In parliamentary systems, a hung parliament is one in which no one political party has an outright majority, and means it is most commonly equally balanced. This situation is normal in many legislatures with proportional representation such as Germany or Italy, or in legislatures with strong regional parties; in such legislatures the term 'hung parliament' is rarely used. However in majoritarian chambers with weak regional parties, such as the United Kingdom, a hung parliament is a rarity, as in these circumstances one party will usually hold enough seats to form a majority.

A hung parliament will force either a coalition government, a minority government or a dissolution of parliament. Frequent hung parliaments can result in smaller parties staying in power for decades as they switch support between the two or three major parties (this is what happened with the Free Democratic Party in Germany).

The most recent hung parliament after a general election in the United Kingdom was the February 1974 general election, which lasted until the October election that year. Prior to that the last had been the elections of 1951 and 1929. Hung parliaments can also arise when slim government majorities are eroded by by-election defeats and defection of Members of Parliament to opposition parties. This happened in 1996 to the Conservative government of John Major (1990-97) and in 1978 to the Labour government of James Callaghan (later Lord Callaghan of Cardiff) (1976-79).

The current Parliament of Canada (the 40th) is a hung parliament, as was the previous Parliament and the Parliament before that; however, the term is not used in Canada. Instead, the term minority government or minority parliament is used.

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Negotiation

A hung Parliament inevitably leads to a period of uncertainty after an election, especially in countries that are not used to it. In the 1974 UK General Election, sitting Prime Minister Edward Heath refused at first to resign, attempting to build a coalition government despite winning fewer seats (though gaining more votes) than the then opposition Labour Party.

Much speculation has gone into whether the Liberal Democrats in the UK would support a Labour government if no party won a majority in the General Election. In such a situation, they could hold the balance of power in that, as the centre party, they could choose to ally with either Labour or the Conservatives to form the next government, or decide to support specific measures of a minority government without entering a formal coalition.

In the Western Australian state election of 2008 the Australian Labor Party won more seats than the Liberal Party at 28 to 24 (although the Liberal Party gained more votes). The National Party along with three independents had the seats needed to give either party a majority. To help the Liberal Party form government the Nationals threw their support behind the party on the condition that the Royalties for Regions policy was implemented.

Working majority

Sometimes although a parliament or assembly may be technically hung, the party in power can have a working majority. Such was the case in the National Assembly for Wales, where Labour lost their majority when Peter Law was expelled for standing against the official candidate in the 2005 Westminster election in the Blaenau Gwent constituency. When the Assembly was first elected on 1 May 2003, Labour won 30 seats, Plaid Cymru won 12, the Conservatives won 11, Lib Dems won 6, and the John Marek Independent Party won a seat. When Dafydd Elis-Thomas (Plaid) was reelected as the presiding officer, this reduced the number of opposition AMs who could vote to 29, as the presiding officer only votes in the event of a tie, and even then not on party political lines. Labour, thus, had a working majority of one seat. This was lost when Law ran in Blaenau Gwent.[1]

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Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
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