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By-elections are held in most nations that elect their parliaments through single-member constituencies, whether with or without a runoff round. This includes most Commonwealth countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as France. In the United States they are called special elections, and are held when a seat in Congress or state legislature is vacant and there is a long period (typically six months) until the next regular election. The Republic of Ireland holds by-elections despite electing members in multi-member constituencies by the single transferable vote — the alternative would be to recount ballotA ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmentals as in TasmaniaTasmania State flag ( In detail) Coat of Arms ( Full size) Capital Hobart Governor William Cox (Acting Governor) Premier Paul Lennon Area — Land — Marine — Total 68 401 km² 22 357 km² 90 758 km² Population(Sep 2003) Density 478 400 6. 92/km² Time zone UTC.

The vast majority of by-elections are unimportant. The governing party normally has a solid cushion so that losing a handful of seats would not affect their position. Because of their inability to greatly affect the governance of the nation, voters feel freer to elect smaller fringe parties. Parties on both the far right-wing and the far left-wing tend to do better in by-elections than in general electionA general election is an election in which all members of a given political body are up for election. The term is generally used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.s.

However, by-elections can become crucial when the ruling party has only a small marginThe term margin has many meanings: In telecommunication, margin has the following meanings: In communications systems, the maximum degree of signal distortion that can be tolerated without affecting the restitution, i. without its being interpreted incorr. In parliamentAlternative meanings: Parliamentary system, Parliament (band), Parliament (cigarette). A parliament is a legislative body, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system derived from that of the United Kingdom.ary systems, party discipline is strong enough so that the one common scenario for a vote of no confidence to occur is after the governing party loses enough by-elections to become a minority government.

By-elections can also be important if a minority party needs to gain one or more seats in order to gain official party status or the balance of power in a minority or coalition situation. For example, Andrea Horwath's win in an Ontario provincial by-election in 2004 allowed the Ontario NDP to regain official party status, with important results in terms of parliamentary privileges and funding.

Party leaders and media commentators often point to by-election victories as important signals, but very often by-elections hinge far more on local issues and the charisma of the candidates than on national issues or how the voters feel about the governing party.