general election
Sign in to saveAlso known as general elections
election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen
Wikidata facts
- Follows
- primary election
Show 3 more facts
- topic's main category
- Category:General elections
- opposite of
- by-election
- different from
- universal suffrage
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Encyclopedic overview
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A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-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 a legislature and sometimes other positions such as a directly elected president. In many jurisdictions, general elections can coincide with other electoral events such as local, regional, or supranational elections. For example, on 25 May 2014, Belgian voters simultaneously elected their national parliament, 21 members of the European Parliament, and regional parliaments.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “general election” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.