Template talk:Infobox election/Archive 2

Terminology
The government and opposition parties on Canadian election articles are currently being designated as "Majority party" and "Minority party" in this table. These are not acceptable or even minimally understood terms in the Canadian context (the current government is a "minority party", for one thing) and the box needs to be changed to read "Government" and "Opposition" for Canadian parliamentary elections as it did previously. Bearcat (talk) 21:41, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Update: slight error. It's only doing this on Ontario general election, 2007. Bearcat (talk) 21:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Update #2: never mind. Somebody wrongly changed the election type from "parliamentary" to "legislative". Bearcat (talk) 21:48, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

HELP ME!!!
It's extremley wierd... look how it looks! What to do?

ES Vic (talk) 18:05, 15 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I just added . --Philip Stevens (talk) 13:30, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I tried that! And I can't explain why it did not wok! Thank-You! ES Vic (talk) 18:05, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Bicameral houses in general elections
How are the seats won/change be modified? See for example on Philippine general election, 2007, the seats won/change only refers to the Senate. -- Howard  the   Duck  14:46, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

local elections
would it be odd (or difficult) to change this template in order to fit also as a template for local election articles?

ES Vic (talk) 11:30, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * What page were you think of putting it on? --Philip Stevens (talk) 14:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I taught on Politics of Cluj-Napoca. But it may be usefull for any other articles that may appear with spectacular/important results. ES Vic (talk) 13:08, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I'd suggest looking at United Kingdom local elections, 2008. --Philip Stevens (talk) 15:05, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

seats_for_election
Can the text size of this field be shrunk? It seems out of place with its large size to me. --Padraic 20:24, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I've reduced the size a little, please use to reduce it anymore. --Philip Stevens (talk) 03:56, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, looks much better now. --Padraic 13:32, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

A couple of problems with this template

 * 1) By limiting it two 2 or 3 "main" parties in the election, isn't the inclusion of some parties but not others violating NPOV? Who decides which parties are worthy of inclusion in the template? And in cases such as Israel where there are about 5 main parties, what would happen there? By itself, I think this may be valid reason for scrapping the template.

Thoughts? пﮟოьεԻ  5  7  10:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 1) In cases where there are more than two parties (e.g. United Kingdom general election, 2005) the template is far too wide. On an 800x600 screen width it takes up the entire width of the page and the text doesn't start until the end of the template. Even on a standard 1024x768 screen the infobox is about 2/3 of the width of the page


 * I find it very ironic that a template which was originally created for British elections is now use used on the election pages of most major countries with the exception of the United Kingdom, and every attempt to put the template on the UK pages is always met with extraordinary levels of protest.


 * To your first point; only national parties that gains seats, or presidential candidates who gain electoral votes are allegeable for inclusion on the infobox. The top three parties/candidates are on top and the rest are bellow. To your second point; simply reduce the size of the images, or remove them all together. Look at United Kingdom local elections, 2008 for an example. Also, if you feel this template should be 'scrapped' put it up for deletion and lets see how other editors feel about it. --Philip Stevens (talk) 10:34, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
 * So how exactly would the template look for Israeli legislative election, 2006, in which 12 national parties won seats? Even without pictures, it would still probably cover the entire width of the screen. пﮟოьεԻ   5  7  10:57, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


 * It wouldn't cover the width of a page as maximum of three parties can go in one row at one time, but you would have a problem as the infobox can currently only hold six parties at a time. A solution would be to put one infobox on top of another. --Philip Stevens (talk) 11:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Majority/minority
Unless I'm missing something, the template doesn't seem to work well for countries with a proportional voting system. For example, Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2008. This is currently type legislative and it lists majority party and minority party even thought the Maoists don't have a majority. If it's changed to parliamentary type then it will have government and opposition which doesn't work either since there is no government or opposition. Once we have a government it will work slightly better (although I'm not sure there is going to be a real government or simply a defacto government until a constitution is written but that's only because their in a state of flux and is not going to be a long term thing). But the problem is, what to do we do in between the election and when a government is formed? In countries with proportionality voting systems, it's easily possible that even when the seats are known, no government is formed and there is still some doubt about who the next government is going to be. For example, in the New Zealand general election, 2005 it seemed like the Labour would form the next government, but there was uncertainty for about 2 weeks after the elction. While admitedly this was partially because it wasn't the completely final results, this wasn't really the primary reason. And even after the opposition conceded it took about another 2 weeks to form the government. And as far as I'm aware, this isn't really uncommon in countries with proportinality systems. What to we do? Treat it as ongoing even when the election has ended and results known? Say someone is the government even though they aren't and may not even be? Say a party is the majority party even though they clearly aren't? IMHO the template needs to be changed so that it's possible to list the results of a completed election, without suggesting one is a majority or in government Nil Einne (talk) 11:14, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I've changed the type to parliamentary. --Philip Stevens (talk) 11:21, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Is it possible to make referendum-type infobox type
This are the types made for the infobox :presidential, legislative, parliamentary, gubernatorial, senatorial and now local elections types (e.g. United Kingdom local elections, 2008) but there is no infobox for referendums and or plebiscites, it is possible we can have an infobox for the referendum and or plebiscites Rizalninoynapoleon (talk) 05:09, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Size force?
United States presidential election, 1976 and United States presidential election, 1972 illustrate a problem with the template: Even though the map is sized at 400px (which I personally think makes even non-stretched infoboxes a bit wide - maybe 300 or 350 max - see United States presidential election, 1980 for a "normal" example) The caption below the map allows the infobox to inflate very wide. We need some way of maximizing the infobox's width either as a mandate (always X pixels wide) or as a field option (width=?). And United States presidential election, 1968 with three candidates is just rediculous. Far too wide. TheHYPO (talk) 06:58, 14 June 2008 (UTC)