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Politics & Government vocabulary · Elections and Voting

Electoral threshold

Meaning in politics & government, with examples

nounCommon term

In politics & government, electoral threshold means: The minimum share of the vote, usually a percentage, that a party must win before it can receive any seats in parliament.

In Turkish: seçim barajı, ülke barajı

How it is used

Used in systems of proportional representation. Parties pass, clear or fail to reach the threshold. Thresholds are meant to keep very small parties out of parliament, and their level, typically a few percent, is a frequent topic in debates on electoral reform.

Example sentences

  1. Four parties cleared the 5% electoral threshold.

  2. Lowering the electoral threshold would allow more parties into parliament.

Common collocations

  • pass the electoral threshold
  • clear the threshold
  • national threshold
  • lower the threshold
  • fall below the threshold
  • proportional representationAn electoral system in which parties win seats in proportion to the share of the vote they receive, so that 20% of the votes gives roughly 20% of the seats.
  • political partyAn organized group of people with similar political aims and ideas who try to win elections so that they can form a government or influence policy.
  • electionAn organized process in which people vote to choose a person or group for an official position, such as members of parliament, a president or a mayor.
  • coalitionAn arrangement in which two or more political parties agree to work together, especially to form a government when no single party has a majority.

More terms: Elections and Voting

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