Safe seat

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A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. congress, parliament, city council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing hands because of the political leanings of the electorate in the constituency concerned or the popularity of the incumbent member. The opposite (i.e. more competitive) type of seat is a marginal seat. The phrase "tantamount to election" is often used to describe winning the dominant party's nomination for a safe seat.