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1915 Dunedin Central by-election

New Zealand by-election

Field	Value
election_name	1915 Dunedin Central by-election
country	New Zealand
flag_year	1915
type	presidential
ongoing	no
previous_election	1914 New Zealand general election
previous_year	1914 general
next_election	1919 New Zealand general election
next_year	1919 general
election_date
turnout	7,959 (84.55%)
image1	[[File:Sir Charles Statham.jpg	100px]]
candidate1	Charles Statham
party1	Reform Party (New Zealand)
popular_vote1	4,033
percentage1	50.67%
image2	[[File:James Wright Munro.jpg	100px]]
candidate2	Jim Munro
party2	United Labour Party (New Zealand)
popular_vote2	3,926
percentage2	49.33%
title	Member
before_election	Charles Statham
before_party	Reform Party (New Zealand)
after_election	Charles Statham
after_party	Reform Party (New Zealand)

The Dunedin Central by-election of 1915 was a by-election during the 19th New Zealand Parliament held on 3 February in the Dunedin Central electorate. The by-election was sparked by the resignation of the incumbent, Charles Statham, after irregularities in the counting of the vote during the 1914 general election turned a 10-vote lead for his competitor Jim Munro into a 12-vote loss. There were only two nominees.

Background

On election night 1914 Jim Munro had a provisional lead of one vote in Dunedin Central. Due to the closeness of the polling there were several re-counts of the ballots which took many days. To general surprise the final magisterial re-count resulted in the seat being awarded to Charles Statham by a 12 vote margin. It was soon revealed however that this was due to a "careless" polling clerk scribbling notes and numbers on ballot papers (rather than counterfoil). All affected ballot papers just happened to be votes for Munro and were thus declared void. If included the 22 disqualified votes would have resulted in a 10 vote final victory for Munro.

Under the circumstances Statham felt honour bound to resign the seat, though he was in no way obligated to do so. He did and thereby triggered a by-election. The Reform government had a bare minimum majority and therefore much was at stake. As a result the Liberal Party did not contest the election and its leader Sir Joseph Ward actively toured the electorate to encourage the electors to vote for Munro. In the event of a Labour victory it was conceivable for Ward to form a minority government with Labour support.

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Results by locality

Following table showcases the detailed results by locality by ballot location:

Locality	Statham (Reform)	Munro (ULP)	Winner	Votes	%
Baptist Hall	200	48.54	212	51.46	Munro
Berwick's Store	192	55.98	151	44.02	Statham
Caversham	153	40.58	224	59.42	Munro
Council Chambers	630	59.15	435	40.85	Statham
Green Island Church	66	33.84	129	51.16	Munro
High Street School	191	79.91	48	20.09	Statham
Kirkland Hall	256	39.26	396	64.64	Munro
Methodist Church	146	60.08	97	39.92	Statham
Odd Fellows' Hall	150	26.64	413	73.35	Munro
Old Council Chambers	152	51.17	145	48.83	Statham
Russell Street	251	56.27	195	43.73	Statham
Victoria Hall	819	46.45	944	53.55	Munro
Walker Street	629	58.45	447	41.55	Statham
Absentees & Seamen	186	64.58	102	35.42	Statham
Total	4,033	50.67	3,926	49.33	Statham

Aftermath

As a result of Statham's victory, the government retained its scant 41:39 majority, allowing them to continue in office. At the next general election in 1919 Statham once again defeated Munro. Statham was to remain MP for Dunedin Central until he retired at the 1935 general election. Munro won election to Parliament at another by-election in 1922 for the neighboring seat of Dunedin North.

Notes

References

Info: 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.

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