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Ageneral election is anelectoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time.[1] They are distinct fromby-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections typically occur at regular intervals as mandated by a country's constitution or electoral laws, and may include elections for alegislature and sometimes other positions such as a directly elected president.[1] In many jurisdictions, general elections can coincide with other electoral events such aslocal,regional, orsupranational elections.[2] For example, on 25 May 2014, Belgian voters simultaneously elected their national parliament, 21 members of theEuropean Parliament, and regional parliaments.
Inthe United States, "general election" has a slightly different, but related meaning: the ordinary electoral competition following the selection of candidates in theprimary election.
The termgeneral election in the United Kingdom often refers to the elections held on the same day in all constituencies of theirmembers of Parliament (MPs) to theHouse of Commons.[3]
Historically, English and later British general elections took place over a period of several weeks, with individual constituencies holding polling on different days. However, from the1918 election onwards, the elections in all constituencies have been held on the same day. There has been a convention since the 1930s that general elections in Britain should take place on a Thursday; the last general election to take place on any other weekday was that of1931.[4]
Under the terms of theFixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, in force until March 2022, the period between one general election and the next was fixed at five years, unless the House of Commons passed one of the following:
Although not provided for in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, an early election could also be brought about by an act of parliament specifically calling for a general election, which (unlike the second option above) only required a simple majority.[citation needed] This was the mechanism used to precipitate theDecember 2019 election, when theEarly Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 was enacted.[5]
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act was repealed by theDissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022.[6]
The termgeneral election is also used in the United Kingdom to refer to elections to any democratically elected body in which all members are up for election.[citation needed] Section 2 of theScotland Act 1998, for example, specifically refers to ordinary elections to the Scottish Parliament as general elections.[7][need quotation to verify]
In U.S. politics, general elections are elections held at any level (e.g. city, county, congressional district, state) that typically involve competition between at least two parties. General elections occur every two to six years (depending on the positions being filled, with most positions good for four years) and include the presidential election.[citation needed] "General election" does not refer tospecial elections, which fill out positions prematurely vacated by the previous office holder.[8]
Major general elections are as follows:[9][10]
The termgeneral election is distinguished from primaries or caucuses, which are intra-party elections meant to select a party's official candidate for a particular race. Thus, if a primary is meant to elect a party's candidate for the position-in-question, a general election is meant to elect who occupies the position itself.[citation needed] Presidentialprimaries happen several months before the general election, thoughnot all states hold primaries.[11]
In theLouisiana the expressiongeneral election means therunoff election which occurs between the two highest candidates as determined by thejungle primary.[12][failed verification]
