I wrote:

>    Eg, the major parties in Ireland managed to avoid holding Presidential elections [...] There was still an "election" but there was no "poll".

Do I contradict myself? Touche. I should of course have said "avoid holding Presidential _polls_." Shows how embedded the traditional "election = poll and poll = election" usage is in our terminology.

(For comparison, on those occasions when an election result is nullified for irregularities and a new election ordered, no amount of legal pedantry will stop the British or Australian media referring to the second poll as a "by-election" -- even though legally that term is reserved for cases where a candidate is validly chosen at the general election but later vacates, not for cases where no candidate is validly chosen at the general election.)