 This is usually used to describe elections to a governmental body (generally a legislature) that are staggered so that the number of offices of that body would not be up for election at the same time.Only a fraction of a body's seats are up for election while others are not until the terms of the next set of members are to expire.The legislators may have the same or longer fixed term of office as the executive, which facilitates an election mid-term of the tenure of the higher office.