 Conversely, in Cyprus, while the House of Representatives is elected for a fixed term of five years, and renewed entirely in each election, House elections are scheduled to be held in the middle of the President's own five-year term.The results of such a midterm election serve as a measuring stick to the popularity of the incumbent executive, although in the United States the governing party has suffered election defeats for most of the time.In European countries where parliamentary systems of government are prevalent, whilst local, regional, and European Parliamentary elections are used as a proxy measuring stick for how popular the governing party is outside of a national parliamentary election year; they are not midterms in the sense that they are not necessarily held at exactly the midpoint between scheduled national parliamentary or presidential elections.