Opposition Party

This generally means the main political movement that is not in power at any given moment. If Party A is running a country, then Party B is the “opposition” or “opposition party.”

I couldn’t find a formal definition for this – most definitions just mentioned vaguer terms like “political opposition,” meaning the political party not running a government at any given moment.

However, what happens when there’s more than two major parties? Taking our example from above, what if there’s Party C? Like Party B, it’s not in power. Is it also an opposition party? In that situation, can you refer to Party B as “the opposition party,” or do they become “an opposition party”? And who decides when Party C has enough political clout to qualify?

Again, there doesn’t seem to be any formal definition. I reviewed some news articles, and found some references that indicate this is an informal label and more than one party can share it (emphasis added):

• “…accused the main opposition party on Tuesday of betraying the anti-communist ideals of its forefathers…”
• “…becoming at one point the city’s second-largest opposition party in the legislative council.”
• “…a leader of the opposition Serbia Against Violence alliance, who has been on hunger strike since Dec. 18” (note that they had to name the party, rather than just relying on the label)

Conversely, I found some formal references, particularly in Indian politics:

In order to get the designation as the Opposition party, the party must have secured at least 10% of the total number of seats in the parliament.

However, I couldn’t find that being named the opposition party provides any practical benefits. The rest of that page describes them as simply a critic of the current administration, which someone could be without a formal label. There’s even a Wikipedia page for the Indian version of the term, but it again doesn’t explain any special powers – only that the opposition party is opposed to the current government in ways typical of all countries.

Canada has a similar formal definition:

An opposition party is a political party that does not win enough seats in a general election to form a government. The elected members of that party instead serve in the legislature as the opposition. An opposition party criticizes and challenges the governing party, with the goal of improving legislation and forming the government in the next election. The opposition party with the most seats is called the Official Opposition or His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition.

But, again, this doesn’t seem to grant any special power. That page mentions these:

• “When considering new legislation or in times of emergency, the prime minister often consults with opposition leaders to brief them on important matters, including upcoming government actions.”
• “The leader of the Opposition and other opposition party leaders are allowed to ask the first questions in the daily question period.”

These both seem rather informal or trivial.

So, the formality of the term is very specific to a particular country. And, even in countries where it’s a formal term, it doesn’t seem to grant much in the way of actual, formal powers.

Why I Looked It Up

In The Shortest History of India:

To add insult to injury, [the vote] was fifteen seats short of being the number required to become the official opposition.