New South Wales state election, 1938

New South Wales state election, 1938
New South Wales
26 March 1938 (1938-03-26)

All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
  First party Second party
 
Leader Bertram Stevens Jack Lang
Party UAP/Country coalition Labor
Leader since 5 April 1932 31 July 1923
Leader's seat Croydon Auburn
Last election 61 seats 29 seats
Seats won 59 seats 28 seats
Seat change Decrease2 Decrease1
Percentage 49.6% 34.8%
Swing Increase3.6 Decrease7.6

Legislative Assembly after the election

Premier before election

Bertram Stevens
UAP/Country coalition

Elected Premier

Bertram Stevens
UAP/Country coalition

The 1938 New South Wales state election was held on 26 March 1938. This election was for all of the 90 seats in the 32nd New South Wales Legislative Assembly and was conducted in single member constituencies with compulsory preferential voting.

The result of the election was:

The UAP/Country Party coalition of Bertram Stevens/Michael Bruxner had a majority of 28 (down 2). Stevens continued as Premier until 5 August 1939 when he was deposed by his party and replaced by Alexander Mair.

Labor's continued poor showing in this election was seen as evidence of Jack Lang's inability to appeal to the middle ground of the electorate. As a result, moves to dispose Lang intensified. The Industrial Labor Party led by Lang rival Bob Heffron was re-absorbed into the ALP on 26 August 1939 and Lang was replaced as party leader by William McKell on 5 September 1939.

During this parliament the ALP and Industrial Labor each won 2 by-elections from the UAP. This reduced the Government's majority to 20 when the parliament was dissolved.

Key dates

Date Event
24 February 1938 The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election.
4 March 1938 Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon.
26 March 1938 Polling day.
26 April 1938 The writs were returned and the results formally declared.
12 April 1938 Opening of 32nd Parliament.

Results

New South Wales state election, 26 March 1938
Legislative Assembly
<< 1935 1941 >>

Enrolled voters 1,607,833[1]
Votes cast 1,183,257 Turnout 95.79 –0.27
Informal votes 32,237 Informal 2.65 –0.39
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  United Australia 424,275 35.86 +2.76 37 – 1
  Labor 412,063 34.82 –7.60 28 –1
  Country 164,045 13.86 +0.94 22 –1
  Industrial Labor 43,735 3.70 +3.70 2 +2
  Communist 10,386 0.88 –0.6 0 ±0
  Independents 128,753 10.88 +6.4 1 +1
Total 1,183,257     90  
1 A total of 19 electorates (six UAP, three Country, and ten Labor) were uncontested, representing 338,853 voters.[1]

References

  1. 1938 Election Totals - Overall Election Results – NSW Elections. Retrieved 4 July 2014.

Sources

Melbourne University Press Melbourne ISBN 0-522-84700-5 OCLC 34416531

See also

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