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1904 Melbourne by-election

Field	Value
election_name	1904 Melbourne by-election
country	Australia
type	Parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1903 Australian federal election
previous_year	1903
election_date	30 March 1904
next_election	1906 Australian federal election
next_year	1906
turnout	16,700 (62.62%)
registered	26,669
seats_for_election	The Melbourne seat in the House of Representatives
candidate1	William Maloney
image1	William Maloney1.jpg
party1	Australian Labor Party
popular_vote1	8,667
percentage1	52.61%
swing1	2.86
candidate2	Malcolm McEacharn
image2	Malcolm McEacharn.jpg
party2	Protectionist Party
popular_vote2	7,808
percentage2	47.39%
swing2	2.86
title	MP
before_election	Malcolm McEacharn
before_party	Protectionist Party
after_election	William Maloney
after_party	Labour

A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Melbourne in Victoria on 30 March 1904. This was triggered by the Chief Justice of the High Court (sitting as a Court of Disputed Elections) declaring invalid the election of Sir Malcolm McEacharn to the seat in the 1903 federal election. The writ for the by-election was issued by the Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives on 15 March 1904.

Background

The 1903 federal election took place on 16 December. Sir Malcolm McEacharn had held the seat for the Protectionist Party since the 1901 election, and was re-elected with a slim 77 vote majority. McEacharn's opponent in 1901 and 1903 was Dr William Maloney, a medical doctor, social worker and reform agitator who had run for the Labour Party.

Following the declaration of McEacharn's election, Maloney petitioned the Court of Disputed Elections, alleging that the applications for 303 ballot papers had been improperly attested by persons unqualified to do so, including police constables, sergeants and other unqualified persons. In addition, 66 postal ballots were examined, and were likewise ruled invalid as having been recorded on material other than ordinary ballot papers. In all, between 240 and 250 "bad votes" were cast for McEacharn, easily negating his 77-vote majority.

The Chief Justice took the view that if the votes had been informal through any fault of the voters concerned, the votes would have been voided and Maloney elected. However, as the informality had arisen through the fault of Commonwealth electoral officers, he would have to rule the election invalid, thus triggering a by-election.

Results

|reg. electors = 26,669

Aftermath

A 2.86 per cent swing towards Labour saw Dr Maloney elected, and the seat of Melbourne was held by the ALP until 2010. Following his defeat, McEacharn abandoned not only politics but Australia, leaving the country in 1905 and moving to Wigtownshire in Scotland, where he purchased the ancestral home of the Earl of Galloway.

References

{{cite AustLII. (1904)
(15 March 1904). "Federal Affairs – The Melbourne Election". [[The Advertiser (Adelaide).
(11 March 1904). "Disputed Elections – Judgment on Points of Law – Sir Malcolm McEacharn Unseated". [[The Advertiser (Adelaide).
Carr, Adam. "1904 Melbourne by-election".
(1983). "Commonwealth By-elections 1901–82". Australian Electoral Office.
Dunstan, David. (1986). "McEacharn, Sir Malcolm Donald (1852-1910)".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1904-elections-in-australia victorian-federal-by-elections 1900s-in-melbourne march-1904

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