hung parliament

See also: Minority government

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 majoritarian chambers with weak regional parties, it 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 West Germany prior to reunification).

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 election of 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 Sir John Major (1990-97) and in 1978 to the Labour government of James Callaghan (1976-79).

The current Parliament of Canada is a hung parliament; however, the term is not used in Canada. Instead, the term minority government is used.

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 be kingmakers, in that they could choose the next government. This issue has particular relevance in the current political climate of Britain.

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 expelled himself for standing against the official candidate in the 2005 Westminster election in the Blaenau Gwent constituency. When the Assembly was first elected on May 1, 2003, Labour won 30 seats. Plaid Cymru won 12, the Conservatives won 11, and the Lib Dems won 6 (an Independent candidate won a seat as well). 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. Thus Labour had a working majority of one seat. This was lost when Law ran in Blaenau Gwent ^[1].

Clare Short

On 14 September 2006, Labour Party MP Clare Short announced she would not be seeking re-election. She wanted to campaign for a hung parliament but was told by her party's Chief Whip that she would be unable to do this while being a Labour MP.^[2]

Note

1. ^ Labour lose assembly majority as Law quits, ePolitix.com. April 17, 2005.
2. ^ Independent - Clare Short: I'm standing down so I can speak the truth

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