By-election: Facts

Categories: Elections

in a British by-election in 1981, John Desmond Lewis ran for office under the name Tarquin Fin-tim-lim-bim-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olè-Biscuitbarrel, drawing inspiration from a Monty Python skit about silly elections?
the Irish politician the O'Gorman Mahon commanded a Chilean fleet, fought thirteen duels, and won a by-election aged 87?
John S. Treen, the choice of the Republican leadership, lost the 1989 special election which sent David Duke to the Louisiana House of Representatives?
Bill Boaks, a retired Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander, won only 5 votes (a record low in a British Parliamentary election) in a 1982 by-election?
Alexander Korzhakov contends that his political adversaries wanted to kill his main rival in the 1997 parliamentary by-election in Tula in order to deem it invalid?
Queensland MP Peter Wellington held the balance of power for four months, until a by-election allowed the Australian Labor Party to form a majority government?

Facts on topics related to By-election

people's veto is a type of a referendum that allows citizens to repeal an existing law?
in the June 2005 Swiss referendum, Switzerland became the first country in Europe to hold a referendum on increased rights for same-sex couples?
in the wake of voter anger at tax increases enacted by Governor James Florio, New Jersey Assembly member Thomas P. Foy supported allowing voters to remove legislators from office by referendum?
it was feared the broadcast of the Italian 1974 Eurovision song Si, meaning yes would influence a referendum on divorce?
the Danish land laws referendum of 1963 is the only referendum in the history of Denmark to have been held by a minority of parliament?
the Goa Opinion Poll was the only referendum to have been held in Independent India?
the Ludlow Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution requiring a national referendum for declaration of war?

Edwin D. Hill was the first president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to be elected by secret ballot?

Clarence Lightner was the first African-American elected mayor of any metropolitan Southern United States city?
Kaka Joginder Singh (alias Dharti Pakad) contested and lost over 300 elections in his 36 year political career?
Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda considered himself the President of Mexico for two decades, despite losing in each of the ten elections he entered?
preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office, an example being the United States presidential primary?
William Cowper Alexander lost the 1856 election for the Governor of New Jersey by less than 3,000 votes?
after Frank W. Towey, Jr. lost his House of Representatives re-election bid, he became assistant to the U.S. Attorney General?
after being declared defeated, Henry Overstolz successfully contested the mayoral election and unseated James Britton to become the twenty-fourth mayor of St. Louis, Missouri?
the Karnataka politician Hotte Paksha Rangaswamy is the world record holder for number of elections contested?

booth capturing is a kind of electoral fraud that is seen mainly in India, where armed gangs belonging to political parties try to "capture" a polling booth and indulge in bogus voting?
at the 1895 United Kingdom General Election, Tankerville Chamberlayne's election as a Member of Parliament was declared void because of electoral fraud?
despite sending 8000 ARVN soldiers from out of district to stuff ballot boxes, South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem could not prevent his candidate from losing to Phan Quang Dan in a 1959 legislative election by a ratio of 6-1?
the Moldavian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi (pictured) opposed his country's union with Wallachia and endorsed the pro-separatist electoral fraud of June 1857?