DCHP-2

byelection by-election DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Politics

  an election held between regularly scheduled general elections, to fill a position that has become vacant during the term of office.

  Type: 5. Frequency — Common in many English-speaking countries (see Chart 2 for one spelling variant), by-elections have been part of the Canadian political landscape since the 19th century. The form byelection has far greater currency in Canada than elsewhere (see Chart 1). Today, however, by-election is still more widely used than the Canadian innovation byelection.
  See also Gage-1, s.v. "by-election", ITP Nelson, s.v. "by-election", and OED-3, s.v. "by-election", W-3, s.v. "by-election", AHD-5, s.v. "by-election".

  • The spelling bye-election is prevalent in Ireland (103 Frequency Index points), followed by New Zealand (43 points); Canada has a very low score of not even 7 points (23 Jan. 2016).