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All 36 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly 2 (of the 18) seats in the South Australian Legislative Council | ||||||||||
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The 1860 South Australian colonial election was held between 9 March and 3 April 1860 to elect members to the 2nd Parliament of South Australia. All 36 seats in the House of Assembly (the lower house, whose members were elected at the 1857 election), and two of the 18 seats in the Legislative Council (the upper house, which had two vacancies to be filled) were up for re-election.
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Since the 1857 election, four different premiers had led Parliament: Boyle Travers Finniss, John Baker, Robert Richard Torrens, and Richard Hanson.
The election used non-compulsory plurality block voting, in which electors deleted the names of candidates they did not support. Members of the House of Assembly were elected to 17 multi-member districts; most districts had two members, with the exception of City of Adelaide (6 members), The Burra and Clare (3), Flinders (1), The Murray (1), and Victoria (1). Members of the Legislative Council were elected in a single 18-member district. Suffrage extended to men (including Aboriginals) over 21 years of age, unless they were "attainted or convicted of treason or felony".
No parties or solid groupings would be formed until after the 1890 election, which resulted in frequent changes of the Premier. If the incumbent Premier lost sufficient support through a successful motion of no confidence at any time, he would tender his resignation to the Governor, which would result in another member being elected and sworn in by the Governor as the next Premier.
