1920 New South Wales state election
The 1920 New South Wales state election was held on 20 March 1920. The 24th parliament of New South Wales was dissolved on 18 February 1920 by the Governor, Sir Walter Edward Davidson, on the advice of the Premier William Holman. The election was for all of the 90 seats in the 25th New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and it was the first to be conducted with multi-member electorates, using the Hare-Clark single transferable vote system.
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All 90 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 46 Assembly seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Results of the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It was conducted using 24 districts, 15 having 3 members and nine having five members.
Key dates
edit| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 18 February 1920 | The Legislative Assembly was dissolved, and writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. |
| 28 February 1920 | Nominations for candidates for the election closed at noon. |
| 20 March 1920 | Polling day. |
| 12 April 1920 | Storey ministry sworn in |
| 21 April 1920 | Writs returned. |
| 27 April 1920 | Opening of 25th Parliament. |
Results
editThe assembly was evenly divided, with Labor having 43 seats and the support of Percy Brookfield (Socialist Labor) and Arthur Gardiner (Independent Labor), while the Nationalists had 28 seats and the support of 15 seats of the Progressive Party and 2 independent Nationalists.[1][2][3] The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly did not vote unless there was a tie which meant whichever side provided the speaker was unable to command a majority. Nationalist Daniel Levy controversially accepted re-election as speaker, giving Labor an effective majority.[4][5]
Compared to previous election held using majority-runoff, two new parties had representation in the chamber - Progressive and Socialist Labor.[6]
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1920 New South Wales state election [1] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrolled voters | 1,154,437 | |||||
| Votes cast | 648,709 | Turnout | 56.19 | −5.24 | ||
| Informal votes | 62,900 | Informal | 9.70 | +8.68 | ||
| Summary of votes by party | ||||||
| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
| Labor | 252,371 | 43.08 | +0.45 | 43 | +10 | |
| Nationalist | 175,280 | 29.92 | −17.52 | 28 | −24 | |
| Progressive | 88,557 | 15.12 | +15.12 | 15 | +15 | |
| Independent [a] | 28,410 | 4.85 | −2.55 | 1 | –3 | |
| Democratic | 14,026 | 2.39 | +2.39 | 0 | ||
| Soldiers & Citizens | 10,055 | 1.72 | +1.72 | 0 | ||
| Ind. Nationalist | 9,357 | 1.60 | –0.87 | 2 | +1 | |
| Socialist Labor | 6,143 | 1.05 | +0.99 | 1 | +1 | |
| Women's | 1,610 | 0.27 | +0.27 | 0 | ||
| Total | 585,809 | 90 | ||||
Changing seats
editSee also
editNotes
edit- ^ Includes Independent Labor.
- ^ Stood as an Ind. Nationalist
- ^ Stood as a Progressive candidate
- ^ Patrick Minahan was nominated by the Labor Party, however his endorsement was withdrawn before the polling day because he signed a pledge for the unconditional release of twelve imprisoned members of the Industrial Workers of the World.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b Green, Antony. "1920 election totals". New South Wales Election Results 1856-2007. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ "Part 5B alphabetical list of all electorates and Members since 1856" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
- ^ "Former members of the New South Wales Parliament, 1856–2006". New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Fredman, L E. "Levy, Sir Daniel (1872–1937)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Fitzpatrick, John (27 April 1920). "Election of speaker" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). New South Wales: Legislative Assembly. pp. 18–33. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
- ^ Farrell and McAllister. The Australian Electoral System. p. 50.
- ^ "The ALP: definite action taken against candidates who sign pledges". The Sydney Morning Herald. 10 March 1920. p. 11. Retrieved 2 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.