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1955 Tasmanian state election

State election in Australia

Summary

State election in Australia

Field	Value
election_name	1955 Tasmanian state election
country	Tasmania
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1950 Tasmanian state election
previous_year	1950
next_election	1956 Tasmanian state election
next_year	1956
seats_for_election	All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
election_date	19 February 1955
image1
leader1	Robert Cosgrove
leader_since1	25 February 1948
party1	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
leaders_seat1	Denison
last_election1	15 seats
seats1	15 seats
seat_change1	0
percentage1	52.63%
swing1	4.00
image2
leader2	Rex Townley
leader_since2	6 February 1950
party2	Liberal Party of Australia (Tasmanian Division)
leaders_seat2	Denison
last_election2	14 seats
seats2	15 seats
seat_change2	1
percentage2	45.35%
swing2	2.23
map_image	1955 Tasmanian state election.svg
map_size	350px
map_caption	Results of the election
title	Premier
posttitle	Resulting Premier
before_election	Robert Cosgrove
before_party	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
after_election	Robert Cosgrove
after_party	Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)

The 1955 Tasmanian state election was held on 19 February 1955 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system — six members were elected from each of five electorates.

The incumbent Labor government, led by Robert Cosgrove, had been in office continuously since 1934, although had not held a majority since 1946. It was looking to win another term in minority government against the opposition Liberal Party, on this occasion led by Rex Townley.

The election resulted in a parliamentary deadlock, with both the Labor and Liberal parties winning 15 seats in the 30 seat assembly.

The 1955 election also saw the first women elected to the House of Assembly: Mabel Miller for Franklin and Amelia Best for Wilmot, both members of the Liberal Party.

Background and deadlock provisions

The 1955 election was the first to be held since the passage of a 1954 amendment to the constitution in relation to political deadlocks. The amendment provided that, in the event of a deadlock in the 30-member House of Assembly, an Electoral Commission would be convened to determine a "majority party" and "minority party" on the basis of primary votes. The minority party would then have the right to nominate a member as Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly, thereby giving the majority party a working majority of one MP. If the minority party did not nominate a speaker, the majority party would be entitled to nominate one of its own members as speaker and also to be awarded a supplementary member of parliament, again giving the majority party a working majority on the speaker's casting vote.

Results

Distribution of votes

Primary vote by division

Braddon	Denison	Franklin	Wilmot
Labor Party	53.5%	53.3%	50.8%	49.9%
Liberal Party	46.0%	46.7%	42.5%	46.5%
Other	0.5%	—	6.7%	3.5%

Distribution of seats

Electorate	Seats won
	Bass	Labor}}
	Darwin
	Denison
	Franklin
	Wilmot

		Liberal

References

[http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/Backg/HAElections.htm House of Assembly Elections], [[Parliament of Tasmania]].
[http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/InfoSheets/ParlHistFAQ.htm Tasmanian Parliamentary History - FAQ], [[Parliament of Tasmania]].
(1955). "Australian Political Chronicle January-June, 1955". Australian Journal of Politics & History.

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.

elections-in-tasmania 1955-elections-in-australia 1950s-in-tasmania february-1955-in-australia

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