Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

local election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

, or

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. Depending on the country and administrative divisions within the country, voters might consist of the general public in what is called an open primary, or solely the members of a political party in what is called a closed primary. In addition to these, there are other variants on primaries (which are discussed below) that are used by many countries holding elections throughout the world. The origins of primary elections can be traced to the

progressive movement Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which aimed to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people. However, political parties control the method of nomination of candidates for office in the name of the party. Other methods of selecting candidates include

caucus A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to a meeting ...

es, internal selection by a party body such as a convention or

party congress The terms party conference (UK English), political convention ( US and Canadian English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party membe ...

, direct nomination by the

party leader In a governmental system, a party leader acts as the official representative of their political party, either to a legislature or to the electorate. Depending on the country, the individual colloquially referred to as the "leader" of a political ...

, and nomination meetings. Primary elections are typically held for offices that have a rigid term, such as a

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

or member of a legislature. Offices such as a

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, which can be replaced without recourse to a new election, typically do not have dedicated primaries of their own; rather, the party typically nominates its internal

as its candidate for such an office. However, Prime Ministerial primaries have been held in inter-party

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...

s, such as the

2021 Hungarian opposition primary An opposition primary was held in Hungary, between 18–28 September 2021 (first round) and 10–16 October 2021 (second round), to select the candidate for Prime Minister of Hungary supported by the opposition parties to form a coalition to comp ...

, and also in cases where a single party opted to retain its leader but select someone else as its Prime Ministerial candidate, as the Portuguese Socialist Party has done in 2014. The inverse may also happen; the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

in Taiwan automatically bestows the party's internal leadership on a sitting DPP president.

Types

General

Where primary elections are organized by parties, not the administration, two types of primaries can generally be distinguished: * ''Closed primary''. (synonyms: internal primaries, party primaries) In the case of closed primaries, internal primaries, or party primaries, only party members can vote. * ''Open primary''. All voters can take part in an open primary and may cast votes on a ballot of any party. The party may require them to express their support to the party's values and pay a small contribution to the costs of the primary.

United States

History

The direct primary became important in the United States at the state level starting in the 1890s and at the local level in the 1900s. However, presidential nominations depended chiefly on state party conventions until 1972. In 1968,

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

won the Democratic nomination without entering any of the 14 state primaries. The Democrats set up the

McGovern–Fraser Commission The McGovern–Fraser Commission, formally known as Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection,Kamarck, Elaine C. (2009). Primary Politics: How Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System'. Washington, DC: Brookings I ...

that rewrote the rules to emphasize primaries, and the Republicans followed suit. The first primary elections came in the Democratic Party in the South in the 1890s starting in Louisiana in 1892. By 1897 in 11 Southern and border states the Democratic party held primaries to select candidates. Unlike the final election run by government officials, primaries are run by party officials, making it easy to discriminate against black voters in the era of

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

. The US Supreme Court declared the

white primary White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate. Statewide white primaries were established by the state Democratic Party units or by state legislatures in South C ...

unconstitutional in ''

Smith v. Allwright ''Smith v. Allwright'', 321 U.S. 649 (1944), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court with regard to voting rights and, by extension, racial desegregation. It overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set thei ...

'' in 1944. The direct primary was promoted primarily by regular party leaders to obtain more party loyalty. However progressive reformers like

Robert M. La Follette Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the 20th Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his l ...

of Wisconsin also promoted them, Starting in 1890 La Follette led the successful fight, winning voter approval in a referendum in 1904. In the United States, various types can be differentiated:

''Closed primary''

* People may vote in a party's primary only if they are registered members of that party prior to election day. Independents cannot participate. Note that because some political parties name themselves independent, the terms "non-partisan" or "unaffiliated" often replace "independent" when referring to those who are not affiliated with a political party. Thirteen states & Washington D.C., Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wyominghave closed primaries.

''Semi-closed''

* As in closed primaries, registered party members can vote only in their own party's primary. Semi-closed systems, however, allow unaffiliated voters to participate as well. Depending on the state, independents either make their choice of party primary privately, inside the voting booth, or publicly, by registering with any party on Election Day. Fifteen statesAlaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, and West Virginiahave semi-closed primaries that allow voters to register or change party preference on election day. Massachusetts allows unenrolled voters or members of minor parties to vote in the primary of either major party, but registration or party changes must be done no fewer than 20 days prior to the primary.

''
Open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
''

* A registered voter may vote in any ''party primary'' regardless of his or her own party affiliation. Fourteen states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin – have open primaries. When voters do not register with a party before the primary, it is called a ''pick-a-party primary'' because the voter can select which party's primary they wish to vote in on election day. Because of the open nature of this system, a practice known as

raiding Raiding may refer to: * The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings * Raid (military) * Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces * Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria * Par ...

may occur. Raiding consists of voters of one party crossing over and voting in the primary of another party, effectively allowing a party to help choose its opposition's candidate. The theory is that opposing party members vote for the weakest candidate of the opposite party in order to give their own party the advantage in the general election. An example of this can be seen in the 1998 Vermont senatorial primary with the nomination of

Fred Tuttle Frederick Herman Tuttle (July 18, 1919 – October 4, 2003) was an American dairy farmer, actor, United States Army veteran of World War II, and Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Vermont in 1998. He lived in Tunbridge al ...

as the Republican candidate in the general election .

''Semi-open''

* A registered voter need not publicly declare which political party's primary that they will vote in before entering the voting booth. When voters identify themselves to the election officials, they must request a party's specific ballot. Only one ballot is cast by each voter. In many states with semi-open primaries, election officials or poll workers from their respective parties record each voter's choice of party and provide access to this information. The primary difference between a semi-open and open primary system is the use of a party-specific ballot. In a semi-open primary, a public declaration in front of the election judges is made and a party-specific ballot given to the voter to cast. Certain states that use the open-primary format may print a single ballot and the voter must choose on the ballot itself which political party's candidates they will select for a contested office.

''
Blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to par ...
''

* A primary in which the ballot is not restricted to candidates from one party.

''
Nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...
''

* A primary in which the ballot is not restricted to candidates from one party, where the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. Louisiana has famously operated under this system, which has been nicknamed the "jungle primary." California has used a nonpartisan blanket primary since 2012 after passing Proposition 14 in 2010, and the State of Washington has used a nonpartisan blanket primary since 2008.

In the United States

The United States is one of a handful of countries to select candidates through popular vote in a primary election system; most other countries rely on party leaders or paid up party members to select candidates, as was previously the case in the U.S. In modern politics, primary elections have been described as a vehicle for taking decision-making from political insiders to the voters, though

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

research indicates that the formal party organizations retain significant influence over nomination outcomes. The selection of candidates for federal, state, and local general elections takes place in primary elections organized by the public administration for the general voting public to participate in for the purpose of nominating the respective parties' official candidates; state voters start the electoral process for governors and legislators through the primary process, as well as for many local officials from city councilors to county commissioners. The candidate who moves from the primary to be successful in the general election takes public office.

Non-partisan

Primaries can be used in

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

elections to reduce the set of candidates that go on to the general election (''qualifying primary''). (In the U.S., many city, county and school board elections are non-partisan, although often the political affiliations of candidates are commonly known.) In some states and localities, candidates receiving more than 50% of the vote in the primary are automatically elected, without having to run again in the general election. In other states, the primary can narrow the number of candidates advancing to the general election to the top two, while in other states and localities, twice as many candidates as can win in the general election may advance from the primary.

Blanket

When a qualifying primary is applied to a partisan election, it becomes what is generally known as a blanket or ''

Louisiana primary The "Louisiana primary" is the common term for top-two runoff voting system where all candidates for the same office appear together on the ballot in the general election, and if none win a Majority, simple majority, a runoff or second round el ...

'': typically, if no candidate wins a

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Websterpluralities, regardless of party affiliation, go on to a

that is in effect a run-off. This often has the effect of eliminating minor parties from the general election, and frequently the general election becomes a single-party election. Unlike a

plurality voting Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per ...

system, a run-off system meets the

Condorcet loser criterion In single-winner voting system theory, the Condorcet loser criterion (CLC) is a measure for differentiating voting systems. It implies the majority loser criterion but does not imply the Condorcet winner criterion. A voting system complying with ...

in that the candidate that ultimately wins would not have been beaten in a two-way race with every one of the other candidates. Because many Washington residents were disappointed over the loss of their blanket primary, which the

Washington State Grange Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

helped institute in 1935, the Grange filed

Initiative In political science, an initiative (also known as a popular initiative or citizens' initiative) is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a pu ...

872 in 2004 to establish a blanket primary for partisan races, thereby allowing voters to once again cross party lines in the primary election. The two candidates with the most votes then advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Supporters claimed it would bring back voter choice; opponents said it would exclude third parties and independents from general election ballots, could result in Democratic or Republican-only races in certain districts, and would in fact reduce voter choice. The initiative was put to a public vote in November 2004 and passed. On 15 July 2005, the initiative was found unconstitutional by the

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (in case citations, W.D. Wash.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays H ...

. The U.S. Supreme Court heard the Grange's appeal of the case in October 2007. In March 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Grange-sponsored Top 2 primary, citing a lack of compelling evidence to overturn the voter-approved initiative. In elections using

electoral system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and Referendum, referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political ...

s where

strategic nomination Strategic nomination refers to the entry of a candidate into an election with the intention of changing the ranking of other candidates. The name is an echo of ‘tactical voting’ and is intended to imply that it is the candidates rather than the ...

is a concern, primaries can be very important in preventing "clone" candidates that split their constituency's vote because of their similarities. Primaries allow political parties to select and unite behind one candidate. However,

tactical voting Strategic voting, also called tactical voting, sophisticated voting or insincere voting, occurs in voting systems when a voter votes for another candidate or party than their ''sincere preference'' to prevent an undesirable outcome. For example, ...

is sometimes a concern in non-partisan primaries as members of the opposite party can vote for the weaker candidate in order to face an easier general election. In California, under Proposition 14 (Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act), a voter-approved

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

, in all races ''except'' for that for

U.S. president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

and county central committee offices, all candidates running in a primary election regardless of party will appear on a single primary election ballot and voters may vote for any candidate, with the top two vote-getters overall moving on to the general election regardless of party. The effect of this is that it will be possible for two Republicans or two Democrats to compete against each other in a general election if those candidates receive the most primary-election support.

Partisan

As a result of a federal court decision in Idaho, the 2011 Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 351 implementing a closed primary system. Oregon was the first American state in which a binding primary election was conducted entirely via the internet. The election was held by the

Independent Party of Oregon The Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) is a centrist political party in the U.S. state of Oregon with more than 135,000 registrants since its inception in January 2007. The IPO is Oregon's third-largest political party and the first political party ...

in July, 2010.

Presidential primaries

In the United States,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

have drawn attention every four years because they hold the first

and

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

election, respectively, and often give a candidate the momentum to win their party's nomination. Since 2000, the primary in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

has also become increasingly important as it's the first

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

state to hold a primary election in the calendar year. A criticism of the current presidential primary election schedule is that it gives undue weight to the few states with early primaries, as those states often build momentum for leading candidates and rule out trailing candidates long before the rest of the country has even had a chance to weigh in, leaving the last states with virtually no actual input on the process. The counterargument to this criticism, however, is that, by subjecting candidates to the scrutiny of a few early states, the parties can weed out candidates who are unfit for office. The

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

(DNC) proposed a new schedule and a new rule set for the 2008 presidential primary elections. Among the changes: the primary election cycle would start nearly a year earlier than in previous cycles, states from the West and the South would be included in the earlier part of the schedule, and candidates who run in primary elections not held in accordance with the DNC's proposed schedule (as the DNC does not have any direct control over each state's official election schedules) would be penalized by being stripped of

delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (United ...

s won in offending states. The ''New York Times'' called the move, "the biggest shift in the way Democrats have nominated their presidential candidates in 30 years." Of note regarding the DNC's proposed 2008 presidential primary election schedule is that it contrasted with the

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a U.S. political committee that assists the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican brand and political platform, as well as assisting in fu ...

's (RNC) rules regarding presidential primary elections. "No presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting may be held for the purpose of voting for a presidential candidate and/or selecting delegates or alternate delegates to the national convention, prior to the first Tuesday of February in the year in which the national convention is held." In , this date is February . Candidates for U.S. President who seek their party's nomination participate in primary elections run by state governments, or caucuses run by the political parties. Unlike an election where the only participation is casting a ballot, a caucus is a gathering or "meeting of party members designed to select candidates and propose policies". Both primaries and caucuses are used in the presidential nomination process, beginning in January or February and culminating in the late summer political party conventions. Candidates may earn convention delegates from each state primary or caucus. Sitting presidents generally do not face serious competition from their party.

Primary classifications

While it is clear that the closed/semi-closed/semi-open/open classification commonly used by scholars studying primary systems does not fully explain the highly nuanced differences seen from state to state, still, it is very useful and has real-world implications for the electorate, election officials, and the candidates themselves. As far as the electorate is concerned, the extent of participation allowed to weak partisans and independents depends almost solely on which of the aforementioned categories best describes their state's primary system. Clearly, open and semi-open systems favor this type of voter, since they can choose which primary they vote in on a yearly basis under these models. In closed primary systems, true independents are, for all practical purposes, shut out of the process. This classification further affects the relationship between primary elections and election commissioners and officials. The more open the system, the greater the chance of raiding, or voters voting in the other party's primary in hopes of getting a weaker opponent chosen to run against a strong candidate in the general election. Raiding has proven stressful to the relationships between political parties, who feel cheated by the system, and election officials, who try to make the system run as smoothly as possible. Perhaps the most dramatic effect this classification system has on the primary process is its influence on the candidates themselves. Whether a system is open or closed dictates the way candidates run their campaigns. In a closed system, from the time a candidate qualifies to the day of the primary, they tend to have to cater to partisans, who tend to lean to the more extreme ends of the ideological spectrum. In the general election, under the assumptions of the

median voter theorem The median voter theorem is a proposition relating to ranked preference voting put forward by Duncan Black in 1948.Duncan Black, "On the Rationale of Group Decision-making" (1948). It states that if voters and policies are distributed along a one-d ...

, the candidate must move more towards the center in hopes of capturing a plurality.

In Europe

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, primaries are not organized by the public administration but by parties themselves. Legislation is mostly silent on primaries. The main reason to this is that the electoral system used to form governments, be it

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

two-round system The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

s, lessens the need for an open primary. Governments are not involved in the process; however, parties may need their cooperation, notably in the case of an open primary, e.g. to obtain the electoral roll, or to cover the territory with a sufficient number of polling stations. Whereas closed primaries are rather common within many

European countries The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, international reco ...

, few political parties in Europe already opted for open primaries. Parties generally organise primaries to nominate the party leader (leadership election). The underlying reason for that is that most European countries are parliamentary democracies. National governments are derived from the majority in the Parliament, which means that the head of the government is generally the leader of the winning party. France is one exception to this rule. Closed primaries happen in many European countries, while open primaries have so far only occurred in the socialist and social-democratic parties in Greece and Italy, whereas France's

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

organised the first open primary in France in October 2011. One of the more recent developments is organizing primaries on the European level. European parties that organized primaries so far were the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is the European political party that represents national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–European Fre ...

(EGP) and the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...

(PES).

Italy

Primary election were introduced in Italy to establish the

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...

candidates for 2005 regional election. In that occasion the centre-left

The Union The Union may refer to: Politics * The Union (Germany) or CDU/CSU, the partnership of the German political parties the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union * The Union (Italy), a former coalition of political parties in Ital ...

coalition held open primaries in order to select candidates for President of

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and

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. A more politically significant primary was held on 16 October 2005, when

asked its voters to decide the candidate for Prime Minister in the 2006 general election: 4,300,000 voters showed up and

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prim ...

won hands down. Two years later, on 14 October 2007, voters of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

were called to choose the party leader among a list of six, their representatives to the Constituent Assembly and the local leaders. The primary was a success, involving more than 3,500,000 people across Italy, and gave to the winner

Walter Veltroni Walter Veltroni (; born 3 July 1955) is an Italian writer, film director, journalist, and politician, who served as the first leader of the Democratic Party within the centre-left opposition, until his resignation on 17 February 2009. He serve ...

momentum in a difficult period for the government and the centre-left coalition. The centre-right (see

House of Freedoms The House of Freedoms ( it, Casa delle Libertà, CdL) was a major centre-right political and electoral alliance in Italy, led by Silvio Berlusconi. History The CdL was the successor of the Pole of Freedoms/Pole of Good Government and the Pole fo ...

The People of Freedom The People of Freedom ( it, Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL) was a centre-right political party in Italy. The PdL, launched by Silvio Berlusconi on 18 November 2007, was initially a federation of political parties, notably including Forza Italia a ...

centre-right coalition The centre-right coalition ( it, coalizione di centro-destra) is an alliance of political parties in Italy, active—under several forms and names—since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed his Forza Italia party. Despite ...

and

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

) has never held a primary at the national level, but held some experiments at the very local level.

France

The means by which the candidate of an established political party is selected has evolved. Until

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, none of the six

Presidents President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

elected through direct election faced a competitive internal election. * The right didn't hold often primary elections to decide for their national candidates. ** In 2007,

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

, President of the UMP, organized an approval "primary" without any opponent. He won by 98% and made his candidacy speech thereafter. ** In 2016, The Republicans held, on 20 and 27 November, primaries to decide of their presidential candidate for

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. * On the left however, the Socialist Party, which helped

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

gain the Presidency for 14 years, has been plagued by internal divisions since the latter departed from politics. Rather than forming a new party, which is the habit on the right-wing, the party started to elect its nominee internally. ** A first try in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Lionel Jospin Lionel Robert Jospin (; born 12 July 1937) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002. Jospin was First Secretary of the Socialist Party from 1995 to 1997 and the party's candidate for President of France in ...

won the nomination three months before the election. He lost in the run-off to

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

. Later in 2002, although the candidacy of then-PM Jospin was undisputed in his party, each of the five left-wing parties of the government he led sent a candidate, paving the way for all five to lose by the

Spoiler effect Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. Vote spl ...

. ** The idea made progress as the 2007 race approached, once the referendum on a European constitution was over. The latter showed strong ideological divisions within the left-wing spectrum, and the Socialist Party itself. This prevented the possibility of a primary spanning the whole left-wing, that would give its support to a presidential candidate. Given that no majority supported either a leader or a split, a registration campaign, enabling membership for only 20 euros, and a

closed primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

was organized, which

Ségolène Royal Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election. Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014 ...

won. She qualified to the national run-off that she lost to Nicolas Sarkozy. ** In 2011, the Socialist Party decided to organise the first ever

open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

in France to pick the

Socialist party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

and the

Radical Party of the Left The Radical Party of the Left (french: Parti radical de gauche, PRG) is a social-liberal political party in France. A party in the Radical tradition, since 1972 the PRG was a close ally of the major party of the centre-left in France, the Socia ...

nominee for the

2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January: E ...

. Inspired by the 2008 U.S. primaries, it was seen as a way to reinvigorate the party. The idea was first proposed by Terra Nova, an independent left-leaning think tank, in a 2008 report. It was also criticized for going against the nature of the regime. The open primary was not state-organized : the party took charge of all the electoral procedures, planning to set up 10,000 voting polls. All citizens on the electoral rolls, members of the

and the

, and members of the parties' youth organisation ( MJS and JRG), including minors of 15 to 18 years old, were entitled to vote in exchange for one euro to cover the costs. More than 3 million people participated in this first open primary, which was considered a success, and former party leader

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. He previously was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) from 1997 to 2008, Mayor of Tulle from ...

was designated the Socialist and Radical candidate for the

. * Other parties organize membership primaries to choose their nominee, such as Europe Ecologie – Les Verts (EE-LV) (2006, 2011, 2016), and the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

in 2011. * At the local level, membership primaries are the rule for Socialist Party's candidates, but these are usually not competitive. In order to tame potential feud in his party, and prepare the ground for a long campaign, Sarkozy pushed for a closed primary in 2006 to designate the UMP candidate for the 2008 election of the

Mayor of Paris The Mayor of Paris (french: Maire de Paris) is the chief executive of Paris, the capital and largest city in France. The officeholder is responsible for the administration and management of the city, submits proposals and recommendations to the C ...

Françoise de Panafieu Françoise de Panafieu (born 12 December 1948) is a French politician, member of The Republicans (LR) party and mayor of the 17th arrondissement of Paris between 2001 and 2008. Political career De Panafieu was a member of the French Cabinet a ...

was elected in a four-way race. However, she did not clinch the mayorship two years later.

Germany

In Germany, top candidates for the federal election can be selected in primaries. For party leaders, however, the selection at delegate conferences is required by law. It is, nevertheless, possible to hold a non-binding primary.

Top candidates

The Greens nominated their top candidates for the 2013 federal election (election of

Jürgen Trittin Jürgen Trittin (born 25 July 1954) is a German Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Green politician. He was Federal Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Germany), Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and N ...

and

Katrin Göring-Eckardt Katrin Dagmar Göring-Eckardt (born Katrin Dagmar Eckardt; 3 May 1966) is a German politician of the German Green Party (officially known as Alliance 90/The Greens). Starting her political activity in the now-former German Democratic Republic (E ...

) and for the 2017 federal election (election of

Cem Özdemir Cem Özdemir (, ; born 21 December 1965) is a German politician who currently serves as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture since 2021. He is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Between 2008 and 2018, Özdemir co-chaired the Gr ...

and Katrin Göring-Eckardt) in a primary election by all party members (closed primary). Primary elections are used much more frequently by parties at the regional than at the federal level.

Party leaders

The first party to use a (non-binding) closed primary to select its party leader at the federal level was the SPD in 1993. After the surprising resignation of

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April 2 ...

, the SPD held another party primary to determine her successor in 2019. A dual leadership of

Saskia Esken Saskia Christina Esken (' Hofer; born 28 August 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as co-leader of the party since being elected in December 2019 (alongside Norbert Walter-Borjans) ...

and

Norbert Walter-Borjans Norbert Walter-Borjans (born 17 September 1952) is a German economist and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as co-leader of the SPD (alongside Saskia Esken) from 2019 to 2021. He served as State Minister of Finance of N ...

was elected. The CDU used the procedure for the first time in 2021.

Friedrich Merz Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz (born 11 November 1955) is a German lawyer and politician, serving as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 31 January 2022 and as leader of the Union parliamentary group as well as the Leader of ...

prevailed against two competitors

Norbert Röttgen Norbert Alois Röttgen (born 2 July 1965) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel f ...

and

Helge Braun Helge Reinhold Braun (born 18 October 1972) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Between 2018 and 2021, he served as Head of the Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the fourth coalition governmen ...

in an online ballot of all CDU party members.

Russia

The first primaries in the history of Russia were held in May 2000 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, the local branches of the parties

Yabloko The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RUDP Yabloko) (russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко», Rossíyskaya obyedinyónnaya demokratícheskaya pártiya "Y ...

and the

Union of Right Forces )"Liberty, Property, Legality"(russian: "Свобода, Собственность, Законность") , headquarters = Moscow , newspaper = Just Cause , membership_year = 2007 , membership = 57,410 , ideology ...

, who before the

Gubernatorial A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...

election offered citizens to choose a single candidate from the democratic opposition. In 2007, before the parliamentary elections,

United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Conservatism in Russia, Russian conservative List of political parties in Russia, political party. As the largest party in Russia, it hold ...

held primaries in several regions. However, its results were not sufficiently taken into account when nominating candidates from the party. For example, the congress of United Russia included in the regional party list in the Samara region not the winners of the primaries, but those who did not even participate in the primaries. In the same year 2007,

A Just Russia A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

held the primaries to determine the candidate for the Gubernatorial election in

Altai Krai Altai Krai (russian: Алта́йский край, r=Altaysky kray, p=ɐlˈtajskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (a krai). It borders clockwise from the west, Kazakhstan (East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar ...

. Anyone could vote for them, for which special items were opened. However, in the future, A Just Russia did not begin to pursue the primaries. In 2011,

, together with the

All-Russian People's Front The All-Russia People's Front (ONF; russian: Общероссийский народный фронт, Obshcherossiyskiy narodnyy front), is a political coalition in Russia started in 2011 by then- Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin to provide ...

, held primaries for the nomination of candidates for the parlmentary election. This vote was called the "All-People's Primaries", but in fact it was not. Candidates for the primaries were selected by special committees. Not even all party members had the right to vote, but only about 200,000 specially selected electors. In addition, the results of voting on the primaries were in most cases ignored. Of the 80 lists of regional groups of candidates for the

State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

, nominated by the congress of United Russia, only 8 lists coincided with the lists of winners of the primaries. All the same, the event played a role in the elimination of candidates: there were cases when the current deputies of the State Duma, having seen that they did not enjoy the support of electors, withdrew their candidacies. In the future, United Russia has sometimes resorted to an "open" model of primaries, which allows voting to all interested voters. In 2014, in the primaries of the "United Russia" before the elections to the

Moscow City Duma The Moscow City Duma (russian: Московская городская дума, Moskovskaya gorodskaya duma) is the Regional parliaments of Russia, regional parliament (city duma) of Moscow, a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject and th ...

, any Muscovite could vote, and not only registered electors. In 2016, the primaries for the selection of candidates for parliamentary elections were held by four parties:

People's Freedom Party People's Freedom Party may mean one of the following: * People's Freedom Party (Russia) * People's Freedom Party "For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption" * Constitutional Democratic Party, also called the People's Freedom Party * Constituti ...

, the

Party of Growth Party of Growth (russian: Партия Роста, Partiya Rosta, ) is a liberal-conservative political party in Russia with representatives in several local legislatures. Created in March 2016 on the basis of the Right Cause party, the party's ma ...

and the

Green Alliance Green Alliance may refer to: * Green Alliance (think tank), a British think tank * Green Alliance (Colombia), a political party * Green Alliance (Ireland), former name of the Green Party in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland * Green Allian ...

. The most massive were 22 May 2016 primaries of the United Russia, which could vote for every citizen who has an active electoral right. However, the primaries, as well as earlier, were not binding for the leadership of United Russia: a number of winners of the primaries were withdrawn by the leadership without any explanation of reasons, and in 18 single-seat constituencies the party did not nominate any candidates. A striking example was the

Nizhny Tagil constituency The Nizhny Tagil constituency (No.171) is a Russian legislative constituency in Sverdlovsk Oblast. The constituency covers central Sverdlovsk Oblast and anchors in the industrial city of Nizhny Tagil. Members elected Election results 1993 ...

, where the candidate from the United Russia was approved candidate, who took the 4th place in the primaries. Finally, a number of candidates were included in the party list on the proposal of the party leader

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...

from among those who did not even participate in the primaries. In 2017, the

holds the

primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

for the nomination of candidates for the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

. These are the first presidential primaries in the history of Russia. However, voting for candidates will take place via the Internet within three months, and, according to the spokesman of the party, the results of the primaries will not be mandatory for the nomination of the candidate and the party convention may nominate another candidate who does not even participate in the primaries, or even not nominate candidates and support President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

, if he decides to be re-elected.

United Kingdom

For the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party used open primaries to select two candidates for

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. Further open primaries were used to select some Conservative candidates for the 2015 general election, and there are hopes other parties may nominate future candidates in this way.

Hungary

A two-round primary election was held in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary in 2019 between four opposition parties, to select a single candidate to the

2019 Budapest mayoral election The 2019 Budapest mayoral election was held on 13 October 2019 to elect the Mayor of Budapest (''főpolgármester''). On the same day, local elections were also held throughout Hungary, including the districts of Budapest which will determine the ...

. A smaller primary was also held in the district of

Ferencváros Ferencváros () is the 9th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest IX. kerülete), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The development of Fe ...

. For the 2022 parliamentary elections, the opposition parties organized a primary to select both their candidates for MPs and prime minister.

European Union

With a view to the

European elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Until ...

, many European political parties consider organising a presidential primary. Indeed, the

Lisbon treaty The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member sta ...

, which entered into force in December 2009, lays down that the outcome of elections to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

must be taken into account in selecting the President of the Commission; the Commission is in some respects the executive branch of the EU and so its president can be regarded as the EU prime minister. Parties are therefore encouraged to designate their candidates for Commission president ahead of the next election in 2014, in order to allow voters to vote with a full knowledge of the facts. Many movements are now asking for primaries to designate these candidates. * Already in April 2004, a former British conservative MEP, Tom Spencer, advocated for American-style primaries in the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

: "A series of primary elections would be held at two-week intervals in February and March 2009. The primaries would start in the five smallest countries and continue every two weeks until the big five voted in late March. To avoid swamping by the parties from the big countries, one could divide the number of votes cast for each candidate in each country by that country's voting weight in the Council of Ministers. Candidates for the post of president would have to declare by 1 January 2009." * In July 2013

(EGP) announced that it would run a first ever European-wide

as the preparation for the European elections in 2014. It was to be open to all citizens of the EU over the age of 16 who "supported green values" They elected two transnational candidates who were to be the face of the common campaign of the European

green parties A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

united in the EGP, and who also were their candidates for

European Commission president The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

. * Following the defeat of the

during the European elections of June 2009, the PES Congress that took place in Prague in December 2009 made the decision that PES would designate its own candidate before the 2014 European elections. A Campaign for a PES primary was then launched by PES supporters in June 2010, and it managed to convince the PES Council meeting in Warsaw in December 2010 to set up Working Group "Candidate 2014" in charge of proposing a procedure and timetable for a "democratic" and "transparent" designation process "bringing on board all our parties and all levels within the parties". The European think-tank

Notre Europe The Jacques Delors Institute (french: Institut Jacques Delors), which also uses the name ''Notre Europe'' (French for "Our Europe"), is an independent think tank based in Paris. Founded in 1996 by Jacques Delors, it aims to "think a united Europ ...

also evokes the idea that European political parties should designate their candidate for Vice-President/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs. This would lead European parties to have "presidential tickets" on the American model. Finally, the European Parliament envisaged to introduce a requirement for internal democracy in the regulation on the statute of European political parties. European parties would therefore have to involve individual members in the major decisions such as designating the presidential candidate.

In Canada

As in

, nomination meetings and leadership elections (somewhat similar to primary elections) in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

are not organized by the public administration but by parties themselves. Political parties participate in federal elections to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, in legislative elections in all ten

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, and in

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

. (The legislatures and elections in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

and

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

are non-partisan.)

Local candidates

Typically, in the months before an anticipated general election, local

riding association An electoral district association (french: association de circonscription enregistrée), commonly known as a riding association (french: association de comté) or constituency association, is the basic unit of a political party at the level of the ...

s of

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

in each

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

will schedule and announce a Nomination Meeting (similar to a nominating caucus in the United States). Would-be candidates will then file nomination papers with the association, and usually will devote time to solicit existing party members, and to sign up new party members who will also support them at the nomination meeting. At the meeting, typically each candidate will speak, and then members in attendance will vote. The electoral system most often used is an

exhaustive ballot The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candid ...

system; if no candidate has over 50% of the votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be dropped and another ballot will be held. Also, other candidates who recognize that they will probably not win may withdraw between ballots, and may "throw their support" to (encourage their own supporters to vote for) another candidate. After the nomination meeting, the candidate and the association will obtain approval from party headquarters, and file the candidate's official nomination papers and necessary fees and deposits with

Elections Canada Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electio ...

or the provincial/territorial

election commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

s as appropriate. At times, party headquarters may overturn an association's chosen candidate; for example, if any scandalous information about the candidate comes to light after the nomination. A party headquarters may also "parachute" a prominent candidate into an easy-to-win riding, removing the need to have a nomination meeting. These situations only come up infrequently, as they tend to cause disillusionment among a party's supporters.

Party leaders

Canadian political parties also organize their own elections of

s. Not only will the party leader run for a seat in their own chosen riding, they will also become

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

(in a federal election) or

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

(in a province or territory) should their party win the most seats. Thus, a leadership election is also considered to be one for the party's de facto candidate for Prime Minister or Premier. If the party wins the second-most seats, the party leader will become Leader of the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

; if the party comes third or lower but maintains

official party status Official party status refers to the Westminster practice which is officially used in the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures of recognizing parliamentary caucuses of political parties. In official documents, this is sometimes re ...

, the leader will still be recognized as the leader of their party, and will be responsible for co-ordinating the activities and affairs of their party's

in the legislature. In the past, Canadian political parties chose party leaders through an American-style delegated

leadership convention {{Politics of Canada In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader. Overview In Canada, leaders of a party generally rem ...

. Local riding associations would choose delegates, usually in a manner similar to how they would choose a candidate for election. These delegates typically said explicitly which leadership candidate they would support. Those delegates, as well as other delegates (''e.g.'' sitting party members of Parliament or the legislature, or delegates from party-affiliated organizations such as

labor unions A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

in the case of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

), would then vote, again using the exhaustive ballot method, until a leader was chosen. Some provincial political parties retain the delegated convention format. Lately, Canada's major political parties have moved to a "

one member, one vote In the parliamentary politics of the United Kingdom and Canada, one member, one vote (OMOV) is a method of selecting party leaders, and determining party policy, by a direct vote of the members of a political party. Traditionally, these objectives ...

" system for their federal leadership elections. A leadership convention is still scheduled, but all party members have a chance to vote for the new leader. Typically, members may vote either in person at the convention, online, or through a

mail-in ballot Postal voting is voting in an election where ballot papers are distributed to electors (and typically returned) by post, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system. In an el ...

. Instant-runoff voting is used in whole or in part to elect the leaders of the three largest federal

political parties in Canada This article lists political parties in Canada. Federal parties In contrast with the political party systems of many nations, Canadian parties at the federal level are often only loosely connected with parties at the provincial level, despite ha ...

: the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

, the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

, and the

, albeit the New Democratic Party uses a mixture of IRV and

exhaustive voting The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector casts a single vote for their chosen candidate. However, if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candid ...

, allowing each member to choose one format or the other for their vote (as was used in their

leadership election). In 2013, members of the Liberal Party of Canada elected

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

as party leader through IRV in a national leadership election. The Conservative Party used IRV (where each of the party's 338 riding associations are weighted equally, regardless of how many members voted in each riding) to elect

Erin O'Toole Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Official ...

as party leader in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Andrew Scheer Andrew James Scheer (born May 20, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Regina—Qu'Appelle since 2004. Scheer served as the 35th speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015, and was the lead ...

, and

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Around the world

Americas

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

2019 Argentine general election General elections were held in Argentina on 27 October 2019, to elect the president of Argentina, members of the national congress and the governors of most provinces. Former Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández of Frente de Todos (2019 coalition), Fr ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

2017 Chilean presidential primaries The Chilean presidential primaries of 2017 were held in Chile on Sunday 2 July 2017. It was the first election in the country's history in which Chileans were permitted to vote from abroad. According to the law, primaries are voluntary, but its ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

: ** In the

2006 presidential elections Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 22 October 2006, as decided on 27 July 2006 by the Bulgarian Parliament. The runoff took place on 29 October 2006, while the electoral campaign spanned 19 September – 20 October. At the election, ...

, the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, and the socialist

Alternative Democratic Pole The Alternative Democratic Pole (Spanish: ''Polo Democrático Alternativo'' or PDA) is a left-wing political party in Colombia. It was founded as a political alliance of the Independent Democratic Pole (PDI) and the Democratic Alternative (AD) ...

held primary elections, electing

Horacio Serpa Horacio Serpa Uribe (4 January 1943 – 31 October 2020) was a Colombian lawyer, politician and Senator. Serpa ran as the Colombian Liberal Party candidate for President on three occasions; in 1998, 2002, and 2006. He previously served as co ...

as the Liberal candidate, and

Carlos Gaviria Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

as candidate of the

. ** In the 2010 presidential elections, four parties held primary elections: The

elected former minister

Rafael Pardo Rafael Pardo Rueda (born 26 November 1953) is a Colombian politician. A Liberal party politician and economist, he has previously served as the 1st Minister of Labour of Colombia serving in the Administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Cald ...

as candidate, the Democratic Pole elected senator

Gustavo Petro Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego (; born 19 April 1960) is a Colombian economist, politician, and former guerrilla fighter who is the current president of Colombia since 2022. After taking office, Petro was considered by analysts as Colombia's ...

, the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

chose ambassador

Noemi Sanin Noemi or Noémi may refer to: * Noémie, a female given name of French origin; also spelt Noémi * Naomi (given name), a given name in many languages; also spelt Noemi * ''Noémi'' (novel), an 1895 historical novel by Sabine Baring-Gould ** Noemi ...

, and the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

chose former mayor of Bogota

Antanas Mockus Aurelijus Rūtenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas (; born 25 March 1952) is a Colombian mathematician, philosopher, and politician. He has a master's degree in philosophy from the National University of Colombia, and a Honoris Causa PhD from the U ...

. *

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

: the country's three main political parties, the National Liberation Party, the

Social Christian Unity Party The Social Christian Unity Party ( es, Partido Unidad Social Cristiana) is a centre-right political party in Costa Rica. PUSC considers itself a Christian-democratic party and, as such, is a member of the Christian Democrat Organization of Americ ...

, and the Citizens' Action Party, have all run primary elections on several different occasions. *

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

2019 Uruguayan presidential primaries Presidential primary elections were held in Uruguay on 30 June 2019 in order to nominate the presidential candidate for every political party.Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

: ** On 24 and 25 November 2007, the

Armenian Revolutionary Federation The Armenian Revolutionary Federation ( hy, Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն, ՀՅԴ ( classical spelling), abbr. ARF or ARF-D) also known as Dashnaktsutyun (collectively referred to as Dashnaks for short), is an Armenian ...

political party conducted a non-binding Armenia-wide primary election. The party asked the people of their recommendation of who they should nominate as their candidate for the upcoming presidential election. What characterized it as a primary instead of a standard opinion poll was that the public knew of the primary in advance, all eligible voters were invited, and the voting was by secret ballot. "Some 68,183 people . . . voted in make-shift tents and mobile ballot boxes . . ." *

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

The Republicans (France) presidential primary, 2016 The Republicans held a presidential primary election, officially called the open primary of the right and centre (french: primaire ouverte de la droite et du centre), to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election. It took place on 20 ...

French Socialist Party presidential primary, 2017 The French Socialist Party held a two-round presidential primary to select a candidate for the 2017 presidential election on 22 and 29 January 2017. It was the second open primary (''primaires citoyennes'') held by the center-left coalition, afte ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

2019 Civic Platform presidential primary The Civic Platform presidential primary, 2020 was the second presidential primary after the 2010 Civic Platform presidential primary. The primary was organized by the party following the decision by Donald Tusk not to run for president again (he ...

** 2020 Confederation Liberty and Independence presidential primaries *

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

2014 Portuguese Socialist Party prime ministerial primary The 2014 Portuguese Socialist Party prime ministerial primary was held on 28 September 2014 and was the first primary open for non members of the Socialist Party and it elected the party's candidate for Prime Minister for the 2015 general election ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

has held primaries for its candidates to the

, Russia's lower-house of parliament. *

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

** Conservative Party parliamentary primaries

Asia

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries The 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries were held on 11 and 12 July 2020 for selecting the numbers of pro-democracy candidates for the subsequently postponed 2020 Legislative Council election to maximise the chance for the pro-democrats to ...

Republic of China (Taiwan) Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

: **

2019 Democratic Progressive Party presidential primary In the 2019 Democratic Progressive Party presidential primary, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Taiwan determined its nominee for the President of the Republic of China in the 2020 Taiwan presidential election, 2020 presidential election. ...

2019 Kuomintang presidential primary The 2019 Kuomintang presidential primary was held after 22 May 2019 through a series of nationwide opinion polls in order to determine its nominee for the President of the Republic of China in the 2020 presidential election. Background Early cont ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

2017 South Korean presidential election Early presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 May 2017 following the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye. The elections were conducted in a single round, on a first-past-the-post basis, and had originally been scheduled for 2 ...

** United New Democratic Party presidential primaries

Oceania

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

** The

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

and the National Party have conducted limited experiments with primary-style pre-selections. ** In 2018, the New South Wales branch of the Liberal Party rejected a motion by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to have primary-style preselections.

Notes

References

* Bibby, John, and Holbrook, Thomas. 2004. ''Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis, 8th Edition''. Ed. Virginia Gray and Russell L. Hanson. Washington D.C.: CQ Press, pp. 62–100 * Brereton Charles. ''First in the Nation: New Hampshire and the Premier Presidential Primary''. Portsmouth, NH: Peter E. Randall Publishers, 1987
The Center for Election Science. Electoral System Summary
* Cross, William P., Kenig, Ofer, Pruysers, Scott, and Rahat, Gideon. 2016. ''The promise and challenge of party primary elections: a comparative perspective''. Montreal. * Hershey, Majorie. ''Political Parties in America, 12th Edition''. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. pp. 157–73
Jeremias, Ralf. "Primary Elections in the USA: Between Republicanism and Democracy". ''Topos. Journal for Philosophy and Cultural Studies'', 1/2021, pp. 55-72.
* Kendall, Kathleen E. ''Communication in the Presidential Primaries: Candidates and the Media, 1912–2000'' (2000)
''Primaries: Open and Closed''
* Palmer, Niall A. ''The New Hampshire Primary and the American Electoral Process'' (1997) * Scala, Dante J. ''Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics'' (2003) * Ware, Alan. ''The American Direct Primary: Party Institutionalization and Transformation in the North'' (2002)], the invention of primaries around 1900 --they were promoted by regular party leaders as well as reformer
online

External links

* {{Authority control Primary elections, Electoral systems

Types

General

United States

History

''Closed primary''

''Semi-closed''

''Open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...''

''Semi-open''

''Blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to par ...''

''Nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...''

In the United States

Non-partisan

Blanket

Partisan

Presidential primaries

Primary classifications

In Europe

Italy

France

Germany

Top candidates

Party leaders

Russia

United Kingdom

Hungary

European Union

In Canada

Local candidates

Party leaders

Around the world

Americas

Asia

Oceania

See also

Notes

References

External links

''
Open primary Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...
''

''
Blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office without regard to par ...
''

''
Nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of the political party. Partisan elections are, on the other hand, segregated by political party. ...
''