Political Significance
By-elections are often seen as tests of the popularity of the Government of the day and attract considerable media attention. Voters, knowing that the result will rarely affect a Government's majority in the Commons, may vote in ways different to their normal voting patterns at general elections. By-elections may reflect specific local issues, and often have lower turnout. As such, large changes in vote share can happen and the results of by-elections can affect or highlight political party's fortunes, as with the sequence of by-election victories by the Liberal Party in 1972/3, or the SNP's win in 1967 Hamilton by-election.
In some cases, an MP or MPs may deliberately trigger a by-election to make a political point, as when all the sitting Unionist MPs in Northern Ireland resigned together in 1986 or the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, 2008.
Read more about this topic: UK By-elections
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or significance:
“I have given the best of myself and the best work of my life to help obtain political freedom for women, knowing that upon this rests the hope not only of the freedom of men but of the onward civilization of the world.”
—Mary S. Anthony (18271907)
“To grasp the full significance of life is the actors duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.”
—Marlon Brando (b. 1924)