They have now ended up handing a leader they loathe an even greater mandate than he had before.
Jeremy Corbyn will secure an even greater mandate from Labour members if his opponents, who are motivated by "deep malice", succeed in triggering a fresh leadership contest, the founder of the grassroots movement Momentum has said.
Mr Abe had called an early election for a greater mandate to deal with "crises", including the growing threat from Pyongyang, which has fired missiles over Japan in recent months.
He added: "In an election where no one wins a majority, it's really pretty simple: give the party which has nonetheless got more wind in its sails, a greater mandate from the British people, the opportunity to try and form a government.
Stock also said that higher turnout means the winning party can claim a greater mandate for their policies.
This is hard to achieve without a greater mandate for its chief executives rather than a mere approval stamp from Beijing.
Having called the snap election in order to obtain a greater mandate to push through a tougher deal with the EU on departing the bloc, May now faces the prospect of having a majority of just a single seat in the new parliament as a result of a deal struck with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.
"I don't think a 60-40 vote is a great mandate for the leadership," Mr. Schermerhorn said.
The first great mandate for a First Woman is not to screw things up for the Second Woman or the Third.
If the money market jittered just because of some opinion poll, I would say you would not have the lowest level of the pound against the dollar at exactly the point the polls told you you would get the most thumping majority for the Tories.Equally, there is no evidence around the world – what is this great mandate that Ken Clarke keeps talking about?
However Mr Clegg has insisted that a government containing the second largest party would lack legitimacy if the largest party had not been given the opportunity to form a government first, saying he would fist open talks with the party with the "greatest mandate from the British people".
