Leadership election


A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party.
Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a leadership election is to be held for that party. In the United Kingdom, for example:
A leadership election may be required at intervals set by party rules, or it may be held in response to a certain proportion of those eligible to vote expressing a lack of confidence in the current leadership. In the UK Conservative Party, for example, "a leadership election can be triggered by a vote of no confidence by Conservative MPs in their current leader".
Strictly speaking, a leadership election is a completely internal affair. An intra-party election held to select its candidates for external offices, such as a president, governor, prime minister or member of a legislature is called a primary election.
Leadership elections have great importance in parliamentary systems, where the chief executive derives their mandate from a parliamentary majority and the party's internal leaders hold frontbench positions within the parliament, if not outright serving in a ministerial post – whether as prime minister in the case of the leading government party, or another ministerial post for junior coalition partners. For that reason, most parliamentary systems do not hold dedicated prime ministerial primaries at all, but simply select their internal leader as their candidate for prime minister.
However, leadership elections are often similar to primary elections in that in the vast majority of instances, a party's leader will become prime minister or premier/minister-president/chief minister/first minister should their party enter government with the most seats. Thus, a leadership election is also often considered to be one for the party's de facto candidate for prime minister or premier/minister-president/chief minister/first minister, just as a primary is one for a party's candidate for president.
An electoral alliance, which is composed of multiple parties each with its own separate leader and organs, may also hold a common Prime Ministerial primary as in the 2021 Hungarian opposition primary, or a single party may wish to retain its leader but select someone else as its Prime Ministerial candidate, as the Portuguese Socialist Party has done in 2014.
In presidential and semi-presidential systems, the chief executive can only be removed by an impeachment procedure, which can only be initiated in specific situations and by a special procedure, and removal entails either a snap election or automatic succession to office by a Vice president. As a result, leadership elections are largely background events, as the ruling party's policies are determined by the President, not by the party's internal leader. However, some systems allow one person to serve as both the President and the leader of the ruling party simultaneously, or even mandate it.
However, this is not entirely comparable to the parliamentary situation, as the majority and minority leaders of political parties in presidential systems are not the chief executive of their country, but are rather officers of the legislative branch of their country, a position similar to the floor leader of a political party in a parliamentary system which likewise doesn't hold mass enfranchised elections for such a post.
In the Anglosphere, Political parties in Canada and in the United Kingdom hold leadership elections where members of the party vote for the Leader.
In Australia, the Liberal and Green party don't let members vote in leadership election, Labor last held a membership vote on the leadership in 2013. In New Zealand, the National and Green party don't let members vote in leadership election, Labour last held a membership vote on the leadership in 2014.

North America

Canada

Trinidad and Tobago

People's National Movement

United National Congress

Europe

Austria

Croatia

Social Democratic Party of Croatia

Finland

Germany

Greece

Ireland

Fine Gael

Labour Party

Fianna Fáil

Italy

Democratic Party

Netherlands

Portugal

Spain

United Kingdom

Conservative Party

Labour Party

Liberal Party/Social Democrats/Liberal Democrats

Africa

South Africa

African National Congress

Democratic Alliance

Asia

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Democratic Progressive Party

Kuomintang

India

Indian National Congress

Israel

Israeli Labor Party

Kadima

Likud

Oceania

Australia

Australian Labor Party

New Zealand

New Zealand Labour Party