An electoral wipeout occurs when a prominent or notably important main party wins no seat(s) in an election cycle; "wiped out" means no one secured victory, from that party, in the body that has conducted an election. The term is also used when a major party is reduced to a very small presence in the legislature.
It is the opposite for a loss at the rate of another party's "landslide victory"; the two descriptions are often used as journalistic reference to critique overall opinion or support for the defeated party given the districts which may be regarded as a usual traditional stronghold have also suffered abandonment in securing assumed victory.
A use of the phrase generally assumes that the returns were the product of a legitimate election; show elections to fraudulent legislatures regularly produce incredibly strong majorities for the ruling party (or parties).
Australia Federal elections Between 1901 and 1949, the federal upper house, the Australian Senate, was elected by a system of majoritarian or "winner-take-all" voting. Each state had three of its six Senators retiring at each half-senate election. Each voter had three votes at each election, whether by first-past-the-post (FPTP) 1901–1918, or the alternative vote. It was often the case that the three seats all went the same way, leading to lopsided results in the six states such as or
In 1948, the Single Transferable Vote (STV) was introduced. At the same time, the number of senators per state was increased from 6 to 10, with 5 instead of 3 retiring at each triennial election.
Since the introduction of STV in the Senate, the parties have generally been evenly balanced, with minor parties and independents holding the balance of power.
In the 2004 election, the Howard government reached 57% of the senate vote in Queensland after the distribution of preferences under the then-used Group Ticket Voting system. It thereby obtained a majority in its own right in the senate from July 2005, when the new senators took up their seats. The number of quotas required to win a majority (four) of six seats, at 57% (four-sevenths of the votes), is so high because there are an even number of seats.
In the lower house, FPTP was changed to preferential voting in 1918.
State and territory elections At the 1974 Queensland state election, using single-member electorates and full-preferential voting, the Labor opposition was reduced to a "cricket team" of eleven MPs, against the National Country Party/ Liberal Party Coalition government with 69 seats (and 2 independents). Labor recorded an even worse result in the 2012 Queensland state election when it lost office and was reduced to a "water polo squad" of seven seats, with the Liberal National Party of Queensland winning 78, the Katter's Australian Party winning 2 and 2 independents. At the 2016 Northern Territory general election, the one-term incumbent Country Liberal Party government, led by Adam Giles (who replaced Terry Mills), was defeated by the Labor opposition, led by Michael Gunner. The CLP lost all but two seats. Although it was outnumbered by independents (and later on by the new Territory Alliance party due to defections), the CLP remained the official opposition and regained several seats at the next election. At the 2021 Western Australian state election, the WA Liberal opposition was reduced to only two seats against Labor's 53. This made them one of the only instances of one of the major parties having less seats than a third party (the Nationals won four seats in the election). This election had already been conceded by the Liberal leader Zak Kirkup before election day, but even Kirkup lost his seat, making him the first major party leader in 88 years in Western Australia to do so.
Barbados In the 2018 Barbadian general election, the governing Democratic Labour Party was reduced from a majority of 16 seats to 0 seats, with the opposition (Barbados Labour Party) picking up all of the DLP's seats to have a 30–0 majority. Under first past the post, the DLP had received only 33,985 votes, out of 154,193, compared to the BLP's 111,968 votes. The DLP later on then failed to gain a single seat in the 2022 and 2026 general elections, leading to another BLP landslide of 30-0.
Bulgaria
In the 2001 Bulgarian parliamentary election the governing United Democratic Forces went from 52.56% and 137 out of 240 seats in 1997 to 18.18% and 51 seats.
In the 2026 Bulgarian parliamentary election the Bulgarian Socialist Party, who have been the governing party multiple times and have had an uninterrupted parliamentary presence since the first election after the fall of communism, received just 3.02% of the vote. This is beneath the 4% minimum threshold for a seat leaving them with no MPs for the first time.
Canada Canadian politics has seen electoral wipeouts at both provincial and federal level.
Alberta has seen electoral wipeouts in which political dynasties would never regain power after their defeat: the 1935 election resulted in the incumbent United Farmers of Alberta losing all of its 36 seats to the Alberta Social Credit Party. The Alberta Social Credit Party would lose to the formerly moribund Progressive Conservatives in the 1971 election, dropping from 55 seats to 25 seats. The Progressive Conservatives would fall after 44 years to the Alberta New Democratic Party dropping from 70 seats to 9. The 2015 election would be the final election the Progressive Conservatives contested as a party before merging with the Wildrose Party to form the United Conservatives in its first leadership election in 2017. Saskatchewan has witnessed electoral wipeouts on four separate occasions: the 1934 election resulted in the incumbent Conservatives lose all of their seats; the 1944 election saw the governing Liberals reduced to 5 seats from 38; the 1982 election resulted in the incumbent NDP losing 35 of their 44 seats; and in 1991 the Conservatives were ousted with a 28-seat drop to 10 seats. The 1935 Prince Edward Island general election resulted in the incumbent Conservatives losing all 18 of their seats to the Liberals, who won every seat in the legislature. In the 1984 Canadian federal election, the governing Liberals were reduced from 135 to 40 seats, and although this was sufficient to remain as the Official Opposition, the party's long-term viability was questioned for the next couple years since the third-place NDP had won 30 seats. The 1987 New Brunswick general election saw the ruling Progressive Conservatives lose all 39 of their seats, with the Liberal Party winning every seat in the legislature. In the 1987 Ontario general election, the Progressive Conservatives lost 36 of its 52 seats and fell to third place. The Progressive Conservatives had been the largest party in the legislature for the past 44 years, serving as the Official Opposition due to the Liberal-NDP accord struck shortly after the 1985 Ontario general election which ended 42 continuous years of Progressive Conservative government. In the 1990 Ontario general election, just three years after winning a landslide in 1987, the governing Ontario Liberal Party called a snap election and were reduced from 95 to 36 seats largely at the expense of the NDP, who won a surprising majority, although the Liberals remained the second largest party and formed the Official Opposition. In the 1993 Canadian federal election, the governing Progressive Conservative Party, which had been in office for nearly a decade, was reduced from an overall majority of 156 seats to only two and suffered an almost 27% drop in their vote. The Progressive Conservatives never recovered from the loss and, ten years later, merged with the Canadian Alliance into the Conservative Party of Canada. In the 1995 Ontario general election, the governing NDP was reduced from 74 seats to 17 seats to settle for third place, as the Progressive Conservatives went from third place to winning a majority government. In the 2001 British Columbia general election, the governing NDP was reduced from 37 to two seats, with the other 77 being won by the Liberals. In the 2011 Canadian federal election, the Bloc Québécois was reduced from 47 to 4 seats. In the 2018 Ontario general election, the governing Ontario Liberal Party lost 48 seats, falling from 58 in 2014 to 7 seats. The Liberals remained third place in the legislature after the 2022 and 2025 general elections. In the 2025 Canadian federal election, the New Democratic Party was reduced from 25 to 7 seats.https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2025/04/canada-left-ndp-poised-for-a-wipeout In the 2026 Quebec general election, the governing Coalition Avenir Québec lost all 79 seats.
Fiji At the 1999 Fijian general election, the incumbent Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT) government, led by Sitiveni Rabuka, was defeated by the Labour opposition, led by Mahendra Chaudhry. Labour won 37 seats (an increase of 30), the Fijian Association Party (FAP) won 10, SVT won eight, the Party of National Unity (PANU) won four, the Christian Democratic Alliance (VLV) won three, the Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party (NVTLP) won two the United General Party (UGP) won two and independents won five. The election resulted in Chaudhry became the country's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.
Germany The use of an electoral threshold in German elections means that sometimes a major party can fail to win seats in the Bundestag or a state parliament, either because their vote share falls below 5% or because the number of directly-elected seats drops below 3. Post-war examples include:
1957 West German federal election: The League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (BHE) in 1956 lost its two cabinet members of the Second Adenauer cabinet when they crossed the floor to Adenauer's CDU, and in 1957 lost all 27 seats. 2002 German federal election: The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) went from 36 seats to just 2 (both directly-elected), but forged an alliance just in time before the 2005 snap election to return as The Left Party/PDS 2013 German federal election: The Free Democratic Party (FDP), part of the Second Merkel cabinet, lost all 93 seats. 2025 German federal election: The Free Democratic Party, part of the Scholz cabinet, lost all 91 seats, with Christian Lindner resigning as party leader.
India
National level
2014 Indian general election: Then-ruling Indian National Congress suffered a decline of 9.24% in vote share. The party slumped to an all-time low of 44 seats from the previous tally of 206 (out of total 543 seats of Lok Sabha) and was thus removed from power.
State level
1965 Kerala Assembly Elections- The Communist Party of India won merely 3 out of 133 seats in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
1967 Kerala Assembly Elections- The Indian National Congress won merely 9 out of 133 seats in the Kerala Legislative Assembly.
1991 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections- The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by M. Karunanidhi won merely 2 out of 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
1996 Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections- The incumbent Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by Jayalalithaa won merely 8 out of 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.
2022 Gujarat Assembly Elections- The Indian National Congress won merely 17 out of 182 seats in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.
2014 Andhra Pradesh Assembly Elections- The incumbent Indian National Congress was wiped out, winning zero out of the 175 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
2024 Andhra Pradesh Assembly Elections- The incumbent YSRCP led by Jagan Mohan Reddy won merely 11 out of 175 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections- The Indian National Congress won merely 16 out of 288 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.
2025-Assembly Elections- The Indian National Congress won merely 6 out of 243 seats in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.