Tasmanian state election, 1916

Tasmanian state election, 1916
Tasmania
23 March 1916

All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
  First party Second party
 
Leader Walter Lee John Earle
Party Commonwealth Liberal Labor
Leader since September 1915 1906
Leader's seat Wilmot Franklin
Last election 16 seats 14 seats
Seats won 15 seats 14 seats
Seat change Decrease1 Steady0
Percentage 48.23% 48.47%
Swing Decrease4.35 Increase2.47

Premier before election

John Earle
Labor

Resulting Premier

Walter Lee
Commonwealth Liberal

A general election for the House of Assembly was held in the Australian state of Tasmania on 23 March 1916 (a Thursday, as the convention of holding elections on a Saturday did not become common until the 1920s).

Background

Although the Liberals had won the 1913 election, events since then had seen them lose government, and by 1916 the incumbent Premier of Tasmania was Labor's John Earle. Earle's government had been appointed on the expectation that he would quickly call for a dissolution of parliament, however he refused to do so, and successfully appealed to the Colonial Office. He remained Premier until the writ for the next election was issued.

The Liberal Party was headed by Walter Lee.

Results

Tasmanian state election, 23 March 1916
House of Assembly
<< 1913 1919 >>

Enrolled voters 107,321
Votes cast 78,984 Turnout 73.60% +6.35%
Informal votes 4,470 Informal 5.66% +2.79%
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Liberal 35,939 48.23% –4.35% 15 + 1
  Labor 36,118 48.47% +2.47% 14 – 1
  Independent 2,457 3.30% +1.88% 1 ± 0
Total 74,514     30  

Distribution of Seats

Electorate Seats won
Bass            
Darwin            
Denison            
Franklin            
Wilmot            
  Labor
  Liberal
  Independent

Aftermath

The Labor Party made no gains at the 1916 election, and with one seat in Darwin going to Joshua Whitsitt who ran as an independent, the Liberals had no clear majority, although Walter Lee became Premier as leader of the party with the most seats.

See also

References

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, January 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.