In politics, a casual vacancy (casual means accidental or unexpected) is a situation in which a seat in a deliberative assembly is vacated during that assembly's term. Casual vacancies arise through the death, resignation or disqualification of the sitting member.
Casual vacancies have the effect of eliminating or reducing representation for the member's constituency. Accordingly, many jurisdictions provide by law for the speedy filling of vacant seats.
Casual vacancies can also occur in non-governmental assemblies, such as boards of directors and committees of voluntary organisations.
Read more about Casual Vacancy: New Zealand, United States
Famous quotes containing the words casual and/or vacancy:
“What have Massachusetts and the North sent a few sane representatives to Congress for, of late years?... All their speeches put together and boiled down ... do not match for manly directness and force, and for simple truth, the few casual remarks of crazy John Brown on the floor of the Harper’s Ferry engine-house,—that man whom you are about to hang, to send to the other world, though not to represent you there.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Old politicians, like old actors, revive in the limelight. The vacancy which afflicts them in private momentarily lifts when, once more, they feel the eyes of an audience upon them. Their old passion for holding the centre of the stage guides their uncertain footsteps to where the footlights shine, and summons up a wintry smile when the curtain rises.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)