Election results and statistics

Recent results

To view the results of past elections see the election results page.

What is 'swing'?

Swing is a tool which helps explain how elections are won and lost. In simple terms it is a way of measuring how the public's support of political parties changes from one election to the next.

Although it gives an apparently clear picture, the disadvantage of swing is that it can only tell you about a shift from one party to another, not the shift between three or more parties.

Swing is calculated by taking the average of one party's fall in the share of the vote and another party's gain in support.

What is a 'hold'?

If a party wins a seat that it won in the previous election, this is described as a "hold".

What is a 'gain'?

If a party wins a seat that it did not win in the previous election, this is called a "gain". Clearly these are really important to the opposition parties.

If they are to form a new government, they need to win seats from the government ie make "gains", and keep or "hold" all the seats they had last time.