Editing Primary election (section)

{{short description|Election that narrows the field of candidates before an election for office}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}

{{Electoral systems}}'''Primary elections''' or '''primaries''' are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming [[general election]]. In a '''partisan primary''', a [[political party]] selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open primary", in which all voters are eligible to participate, or a "closed primary", in which only members of a political party can vote. Less common are [[nonpartisan primaries]] in which all candidates run regardless of party.

The origins of primary elections can be traced to the [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive movement]] in the [[United States]], which aimed to take the power of candidate nomination from party leaders to the people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Kevin B. |title=Governing States and Localities |publisher=CQ Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-60426-728-0 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=189–190}}</ref> However, political parties control the method of nomination of candidates for office in the name of the party. Other methods of selecting candidates include [[Caucus|caucuses]], internal selection by a party body such as a [[Political convention|convention]] or [[party congress]], direct nomination by the [[party leader]], and nomination meetings.

A similar procedure for selecting individual candidates under [[party-list proportional representation]] can be found in [[open list]] systems; in such systems, the party primary is combined with the [[general election]]. Parties in countries using the [[parliamentary system]] may also hold [[Leadership election|leadership elections]]. A party's leader will typically become the [[head of government]] should that party win a majority of seats in the legislature, meaning leadership elections often select a party's ''de facto'' candidate for prime minister, much like a presidential primary.

Countries that use [[First-past-the-post voting|first-past-the-post]] for both the primary and general elections are often described as using a '''partisan two-round system''' to highlight the similarity to [[Two-round system|two-round (runoff) systems]], particularly in two-party systems.{{Cn|date=December 2024}} These similarities have led to the first round of a two-round system sometimes being called a "nonpartisan primary" in the United States.