Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
politics

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1943 Western Australian state election


FieldValue
election_name1943 Western Australian state election
countryWestern Australia
flag_year1870
typeparliamentary
ongoingno
previous_election1939 Western Australian state election
previous_year1939
next_election1947 Western Australian state election
next_year1947
seats_for_electionAll 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
election_date20 November 1943
image1[[File:John Willcock 1940 (cropped).jpg130px]]
leader1John Willcock
leader_since120 August 1936
party1Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)
leaders_seat1Geraldton
percentage143.28%
swing14.00? (see Results)
last_election127 seats
seats130 seats
seat_change13
image2[[File:Arthur Watts 1950.jpg130px]]
leader2Arthur Watts
leader_since28 October 1942
party2Country Party (Western Australia)
leaders_seat2Katanning
percentage212.41%
swing20.41
last_election212 seats
seats210 seats
seat_change22
leader3Ross McDonald
leader_since313 April 1938
party3Nationalist Party of Australia
leaders_seat3West Perth
percentage324.29%
swing30.31
last_election37 seats
seats37 seats
seat_change30
titlePremier
before_electionJohn Willcock
before_partyAustralian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)
after_electionJohn Willcock
after_partyAustralian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)

26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

The election took place in the midst of World War II, and as such, turnout was considerably down on the previous election. The election was delayed from its intended date of February 1942 by the Legislative Assembly Duration and General Election Postponement Acts (No 51 of 1941, assented 16 January 1942, and No 18 of 1942, assented 9 December 1942) due to the war.

In the previous term, two changes of membership occurred at by-elections. George Lambert, the Labor member for Yilgarn-Coolgardie, died on 30 June 1941 and was replaced by former Labor branch secretary Lionel Kelly, running under the "Independent Country" banner. He ultimately joined the Labor Party and became a minister in the Bert Hawke government in the 1950s. In 1943, long-serving and colourful independent Thomas Hughes resigned his seat of East Perth to contest the federal seat of Perth. It was picked up by Labor's Herb Graham. Prior to the election, former Independent Nationalist Arthur Abbott joined the Nationalist Party.

Results

Apart from Labor gaining two seats from the Country Party (Avon and Greenough) and one from the Nationalists (Nelson, where Ernest Hoar defeated the incumbent member by just 17 votes), no changes took place at the election. An interesting race in Mount Marshall opened up by the retirement of incumbent Country member Frederick Warner ended with the Country candidate, Hugh Leslie, victorious against the ALP and former minister John Lindsay.

| turnout % = 86.54% | informal % = 2.47% |votes % = 43.28% |votes % = 24.29% |votes % = 12.41% |votes % = 5.13% |votes % = 4.41% |votes % = 0.40% |votes % = 5.97% |}

: 274,856 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 12 of the 50 seats were uncontested—11 Labor seats (seven more than 1939, including all of the Fremantle seats) representing 57,651 enrolled voters, and one Nationalist seat representing 4,829 voters. The estimated swing from 1939 and 1943 was approximately 4% to Labor.

Electoral districts

References

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.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1943 Western Australian state election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report