List of landslide victories

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In politics, a landslide victory (or landslide) is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election.

Australia

After the 2007 federal election some commentators referred to the Labor Party's win under Kevin Rudd as a ruddslide. By historical standards though, the victory was not unusually large. Some notable election results in Australia have been:

• 1917 - Nationalist Party won 53 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives (the Nationalists also attained the highest primary vote (54%) to date in a federal election)
• 1925 - Nationalist-Country Coalition won 51 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1929 - Australian Labor Party won 46 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1943 - Australian Labor Party won 49 of the 74 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1949 - Liberal-Country Coalition won 74 of the 121 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1958 - Liberal-Country Coalition won 77 of the 121 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1966 - Liberal-Country Coalition won 82 of the 124 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1975 - Liberal-National Coalition won 91 of the 127 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1983 - Australian Labor Party won 75 of the 125 seats in the House of Representatives
• 1996 - Liberal-National Coalition won 94 of the 148 seats in the House of Representatives
• The 1931 election stands as the greatest loss of seats for a government - 32 seats in a 74-seat parliament

Australian elections are characterised by few changes in government — since 1949 there have been only five elections where a new party has won government. When a new party is elected, however, it is generally by a landslide.

Some notable state election landslides include:

• 1911 Western Australian state election - The Labor party, previously in opposition, won 34 of the 50 seats in the state Legislative Assembly.
• 1933 Western Australian state election - The Labor party, previously in opposition, won 30 of the 50 seats in the state Legislative Assembly, reducing the previous party of government, the Nationalists, to minor party status.
• 1974 Queensland state election - Country-Liberal Coalition won 69 of the 82 seats in the state parliament (the Coalition's win, while overwhelming, was exaggerated by the Bjelkemander in operation in the state's electoral divisions at the time)
• 1981 New South Wales state election - Australian Labor Party won 69 of the 99 seats in the state Legislative Assembly.
• 1993 South Australian state election - Liberal Party, previously in opposition, won 37 of the 47 seats in the state House of Assembly.
• 2001 Queensland state election - Australian Labor Party won 66 of the 89 seats in the state Legislative Assembly.
• 2002 Victorian state election - Australian Labor Party won 62 of the 88 seats in the state Legislative Assembly.

Canada

• Prince Edward Island general election, 1935, in which the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island under Walter Lea won every seat in the legislature, the first time in the history of the British Empire that that happened.
• Canadian federal election, 1958, in which the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada won 208 seats out of 265.
• Canadian federal election, 1984, in which the Progressive Conservatives won 211 seats out of 282.
• New Brunswick general election, 1987, in which the Liberal Party of New Brunswick won every seat in the legislature.
• British Columbia general election, 2001, in which 77 of 79 seats were won by the BC Liberal Party.

France

• French legislative election, 1919, in which the "Bloc National", an alliance of Right and Centrist parties seeking to continue the "Sacred Union" of parties which saw France through the First World War, won 433 MPs seats out of a total of 613, a majority of 70%; because of its Nationalist convictions and of the colour of the French Army uniforms at the time, this legislature was nicknamed "Chambre bleu horizon".
• French legislative election, 1968, in which an alliance of Right and Centrist parties united in their support of President Charles de Gaulle following the massive street demonstrations of May and June 1968, won 52% of the votes and 394 MPs seats out of a total of 485, a majority of 81%.
• French presidential election, 2002, in which incumbent Jacques Chirac was reelected against far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen with more than 82% of all votes.
• French regional elections, 2004, in which the Socialist Party won 20 of 22 regions in metropolitan France.
• French legislative election, 1993, in which the "Union For France" (alliance of the RPR and UDF) won 485 of 577 seats in the National Assembly.

Germany

• German federal election, 1957, in which the conservative alliance between CDU and CSU won the absolute majority of the popular vote.

Hong Kong

• The 1991 election: A coalition of the United Democrats of Hong Kong 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 1995 election: The Democratic Party, together with other smaller parties, groups and independents in the pro-democracy camp, getting 17 of the 20 geographical constituency seats.

Poland

• In the runoff of the Polish presidential election, 1990 Lech Wałęsa won 74.25% of votes against 25.75% of Stan Tymiński. This remains, to date, the biggest victory;
• During Polish presidential election, 2000 incumbent Aleksander Kwaśniewski won 53.90%, avoiding (the only time in history), a second round. His closest rival, Andrzej Olechowski, won just 17.30%. In Polish politics this election, because of quick victory and large margin, is also considered a landslide;
• During Polish parliamentary election, 2001 Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union won 47.2% (216 Sejm seats) against closest opposition party, Civic Platform (14.1% and 65 seats). This is, to date, the biggest victory margin and is also considered a landslide (In Senate, DLA-LU won 75 of 100 seats).

Russia

• The United Russia party collected 64% of votes during the 2007 Duma elections. The next highest vote total was achieved by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which received 11% of votes cast.^[1] The elections have been criticized for being unfair.^[2]

South Korea

• In the 2007 Presidential election, Lee Myung-bak beat his nearest rival Chung Dong-young by 22.6 percentage points, garnering 48.7% of the vote against Chung's 26.1% of the vote, while independent candidate Lee Hoi-chang came in third with 15.1% of the vote. Since the beginning of direct Presidential elections in South Korea, this election was won by the widest margin in South Korea history. However, the turnout was the lowest ever for a South Korean presidential election.

United Kingdom

In general, any British general election which results in a majority of over 100 seats tends to be described as a landslide. Landslide victories since the Reform Act 1884 (the first time a majority of adult males could vote) are:

• The 1886 election: Unionist (Conservative Party and Liberal Unionist Party) overall majority of 116
• The 1895 election: Unionist overall majority of 152
• The 1900 election: Unionist overall majority of 134
• The 1906 election: Liberal Party overall majority of 128 (356 when assuming Labour and Irish Nationalist support)
• The 1918 election: Coalition overall majority of 239
• The 1924 election: Conservative overall majority of 209
• The 1931 election: National government overall majority of 493 (including Conservative majority of 324)
• The 1935 election: National government overall majority of 247
• The 1945 election: Labour Party 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 1987 election: Conservative overall majority of 102
• The 1997 election: Labour overall majority of 179
• The 2001 election: Labour overall majority of 167

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 the 2005 election despite securing only 35% of the vote. Conversely, parties can poll very highly and achieve disproportionately low numbers of MPs. For example, the Conservatives (led by John Major) polled the greatest number of votes in British history in the 1992 election, but were returned with a slender overall majority of just 21.

United States

Presidential

Presidential elections in the United States are indirect; they are not determined by the "popular vote", but by the Electoral College. Each state is allocated as many "electors" as it has Senators and Representatives in the United States Congress, and, at present, all states but Nebraska and Maine hold a "winner take all" vote, in which the winner of the popular vote in a state wins all electoral votes the state is eligible to cast.

For this reason, many presidential victories appear to be huge landslide victories when examining the electoral vote, but much less so when examining the popular vote; for example, in the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan won 89.7% of the electoral vote but 50.7% of the popular vote to Jimmy Carter's 41.0%.

Popular votes

• Lyndon Johnson's 61.1% to Barry Goldwater's 38.5% in the 1964 presidential election
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's 60.8% to Alf Landon's 36.5% in the 1936 presidential election
• Richard Nixon's 60.7% to George McGovern's 37.5% in the 1972 presidential election
• Warren Harding's 60.3% to James M. Cox's 34.1% in the 1920 presidential election
• Ronald Reagan's 58.8% to Walter Mondale's 40.6% in the 1984 presidential election
• Theodore Roosevelt's 56.4% to Alton B. Parker's 37.6% in the 1904 presidential election

Electoral votes

• James Monroe's 231 electoral votes to John Quincy Adams's 1 electoral vote in 1820. (85.6% margin)
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's 523 electoral votes to Alf Landon's 8 electoral votes in 1936. (97% margin)
• Richard Nixon's 520 electoral votes to George McGovern's 17 electoral votes and John Hospers's 1 in 1972. (93.3% margin)
• Ronald Reagan's 525 electoral votes to Walter Mondale's 13 electoral votes in 1984. (95.2% margin)

The greatest modern landslides in the United States Presidential elections

• 1920 - the greatest percentage point margin in the popular vote (Harding 60.3% to Cox 34.1%).
• 1936 - the greatest electoral votes difference between winner and opponent (Roosevelt 523 to Landon 8).
• 1964 - the highest percentage for winner (Lyndon Johnson 61.1%).
• 1984 - the highest number of electoral votes (Reagan 525).

Notes