# snap election



## victoria1

Hi Forum
Can I translate *snap election* by "élections anticipées". Or is there a better translation?
Thank you.


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## JeanDeSponde

Yes - _élections anticipées_


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## edwingill

Could élections surprises work?


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## cropje_jnr

edwingill said:


> Could élections surprises work?


 
This would give me the impression that the election of the party/individual, etc. (i.e. the result) was surprising.


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## victoria1

Thank you for your contributions. "*Elections surprises*" is not bad. Haven't thought of it. Correct me if i'm wrong but "élections anticipées" conveys the idea that the elections were to be held on such a date but are now scheduled to take place ahead of time. *Elections surprises* on the other hand conveys the idea of a complete surprise: out of the blue a government decides to hold elections maybe because of a favourable political climate. I don't know but for me there is a slight nuance between the two.


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## alisonp

victoria1 said:


> Correct me if i'm wrong but "élections anticipées" conveys the idea that the elections were to be held on such a date but are now scheduled to take place ahead of time.


 
If that's true, then I don't think it entirely applies in the context (I'm assuming we're probably talking UK politics and the possibility of Gordon Brown calling a snap election?).  With the British system (and I'm not sure how many other nations do this), it is down to the party in government to set the date of the election, which they will obviously do when they feel it is advantageous to them.  So it's not really a question of bringing the election forward from a set date.


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## victoria1

For the record, I'm referring to the Malagasy forthcoming elections. What I meant was: Usually elections are held every say five years in the country. So people do have a clue when the next elections will be held. The government will be the one setting the date. Suppose the government sets the date a few months in advance, I would translate it by "élections anticipées" and not "élections surprises" as they were supposed to be held in that period anyway. Does it make sense?


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## alisonp

Ah, right.  Apologies for my unnecessarily UK-centric view of the world, then , and ignore what I said.


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## victoria1

Thank you Alisonp


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## clairet

I'm puzzled by the exchange just above. Victoria1's description sounds just like what happens in the UK (legal limit of 5 years between elections but governments choose to hold them any time it suits them short of that) too, so alisonp's remarks seem relevant to me (if not to her!).  In the UK, a "snap election" is one that is taken particularly suddenly, without apparent warning, not simply ahead of the 5 year limit (since they virtually all do that).  The Malagasy case would only be different if governments usually tend to go to the wire before calling an election.


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## edwingill

clairet said:


> I'm puzzled by the exchange just above. Victoria1's description sounds just like what happens in the UK (legal limit of 5 years between elections but governments choose to hold them any time it suits them short of that) too, so alisonp's remarks seem relevant to me (if not to her!).  In the UK, a "snap election" is one that is taken particularly suddenly, without apparent warning, not simply ahead of the 5 year limit (since they virtually all do that).  The Malagasy case would only be different if governments usually tend to go to the wire before calling an election.


I agree with you. A snap election is called out of the blue, and is held in a few weeks. I don't know whether 'snap' also connotes that the election is to be held in short order.


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## victoria1

So to recapitulate:
"élections surprises"  = snap elections
"élections anticipées" = early elections???!


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## edwingill

victoria1 said:


> So to recapitulate:
> "élections surprises"  = snap elections
> "élections anticipées" = early elections???!


Yes, agreed


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## victoria1

Thank you all it was a very interesting debate.


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## clairet

I've just seen this in Le Monde 23/9/07, where it clearly refers to a snap election
*Gordon Brown ne ferme pas la porte à un scrutin anticipé*

[...]


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## Teafrog

clairet said:


> […]  In the UK, a "snap election" is one that is taken particularly suddenly, without apparent warning […]





edwingill said:


> […] A snap election is called out of the blue, and is held in a few weeks. I don't know whether 'snap' also connotes that the election is to be held in short order.


 I fully agree with clairet and edwingill.
A snap decision is a decision taken on the spur of the moment. A snap election is one that has not been anticipated nor planned a long time in advance.


victoria1 said:


> So to recapitulate:
> "élections surprises"  = snap elections
> "élections anticipées" = early elections???!


For the 2nd option, I would say "planned, expected or …anticipated elections.
How about: snap elections = élections sur le vif (or something in that vein)?


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## clairet

So, TeaFrog, are you saying Le Monde has got it wrong?  I'm sure I couldn't say that.....


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## Teafrog

clairet said:


> So, TeaFrog, are you saying Le Monde has got it wrong?  I'm sure I couldn't say that.....


I don't know about Le Monde, your link didn't work.
However I know what a snap decision is. A snap election, as far as I can tell, is an election brought forward due to a …snap decision. See this or this 
I'm sure that whatever Le Monde had to say for themselves is correct…


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## Cath.S.

If you don't want to use _élections anticipées_ (which sounds like a sensible translation), then I suggest _élections extraordinaires_, the way we speak about _une session extraordinaire du parlement _(one that wasn't scheduled but suddenly called by the government). _Élections extraordinaires_ is used here, for instance, in an official E.U. text.


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## victoria1

Hi everybody
Clairet, we cannot open your link. Some of the links from Teafrog's post above makes no difference between snap and early elections. They are one and the same. 
I will still keep "*élections surprises*" for "*snap elections*". And leave "*early elections*" for "*élections anticipées*". *Both elections are held earlier than scheduled.* There is no doubt about that! But you have to agree with me that when we use *snap elections* the element of surprise is obvious whereas it is absent when we use *early elections.*
As for "élections extraordinaires", I have never heard it used before. But open any records of meetings of UN, African Union, etc. and you will come across "sessions extraordinaires".
Thanks everybody for your inputs.


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## edwingill

Teafrog said:


> I don't know about Le Monde, your link didn't work.
> However I know what a snap decision is. A snap election, as far as I can tell, is an election brought forward due to a …snap decision. See this or this
> I'm sure that whatever Le Monde had to say for themselves is correct…


Teafrog the link is here:http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-32534753@7-37,0.html?xtor=RSS-3208


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## Teafrog

edwingill said:


> Teafrog the link is here:http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-32534753@7-37,0.html?xtor=RSS-3208



It worked, thanks, I see where you are coming from now 
To be fair, they've talked about moving forwards the elections for ages now (in fact, soon after Brownie took the helm), which is why I suspect they use "anticipated" (same meaning in English). I wouldn't have called them snap elections, because the 'snap factor' has gone a long time ago


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## edwingill

Teafrog said:


> It worked, thanks, I see where you are coming from now
> To be fair, they've talked about moving forwards the elections for ages now (in fact, soon after Brownie took the helm), which is why I suspect they use "anticipated" (same meaning in English). I wouldn't have called them snap elections, because the 'snap factor' has gone a long time ago


Today's  Daily Telegraph talks about a snap election http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/23/nlabour1023.xml


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## Teafrog

"A Telegraph poll published on Friday suggested that Labour would win a landslide victory in a snap election."
Yes, I see. They took their time (erm, all summer…) to snap their decision for their snap election! I don't think anyone is snap surprised


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## clairet

Thanks to edwingill for providing the link I failed with. 

I agree with TeaFrog that a snap election has been discussed for a long time. However, an election called at very short notice would still be a snap election, even without total surprise. The article in Le Monde speaks of one possibly being called in October (though there has to be a period of 17 working days (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_United_Kingdom#Summary) between calling it and the actual vote) and that seems pretty short notice - but they still call it "un scrutin anticipé". So I conclude that French does not distinguish, as English does, between an anticipated election and that special case of the latter which is a snap election. To make the distinction, if you want to make it, maybe you'd have to use "surpris" as suggested earlier. I'm sorry to seem to be going round in circles after a consensus seemed to have been reached but I felt I couldn't ignore Le Monde!


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## victoria1

Thanks everybody.


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## Dagnogo

Hi. Snap election = do election quickly. by elections anticipees = befor the end of president's power. It usually happened when the president elected is not in power


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## victoria1

Merci Dagnogo.


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## jdes

hi,

  I would prefer read "DC accuse GB de prendre les citoyens britanniques pour des imbéciles en n'appelant pas rapidement à une éléction".

she is not anticipated, there's no due date. 
I think that in english you said snap election, while in french we say it by adding an adverb to the verb

in a more popular way, you could say :
"DC accuse GB de prendre les anglais pour des cons en ne faisant pas petter son election"
typically the snap's meaning is included in the sens of "faire petter"

by


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