1904 Victorian state election

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1904 Victorian state election
Flag of Victoria (1901-1952).svg
  1902 1 June 1904 (1904-06-01) 1907  

67 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
 First partySecond party
  22Thomasbent.jpg Frederick Bromley.jpg
Leader Thomas Bent Frederick Bromley
Party National Citizens Reform League Labour
Leader since19041904
Leader's seat Brighton Carlton
Last election47 seats12 seats
Seats won35 seats17 seats
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 12Increase2.svg 5
Percentage36.1432.55
SwingDecrease2.svg 5.93%Increase2.svg 14.54%

Premier before election

Thomas Bent
National Citizens Reform League

Elected Premier

Thomas Bent
National Citizens Reform League

The 1904 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on 1 June 1904 to elect 67 members to the state's Legislative Assembly. [1]

Contents

It was the first election to be held in Victoria since the passing of the Constitution Act 1903 [2] (also known as the "Constitution Reform Act"), which reduced the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly from 95 to 67 and removed all two-member electorates. It also created three new electorates representing public and railways officers: the Electoral province for Public Officers and Railway Officers the "Electoral district for Public Officers" and a two-member "Electoral district for Railway Officers". Members of the public service had previously not been eligible to stand as candidates without first resigning. Under these changes, they could stand while a state employee, and if successful in winning a seat, would have a leave of absence while sitting as an MP.

Background

Ministerialists were a group of members of parliament who supported a government in office but were not bound by tight party discipline. Ministerialists represented loose pre-party groupings who held seats in state parliaments up to 1914. Such members ran for office as independents or under a variety of political labels but saw themselves as linked to other candidates by their support for a particular premier or government.

Thomas Bent was elected on 16 February 1904 leader of the Commonwealth Liberal Party, replacing Premier William Irvine who went into federal politics, and went into the election as the incumbent Premier. At the June 1904 election Bent won a comfortable majority with 35 of the 67 seats, and the Labour Party became the second largest party in the Assembly with 17 seats.

Results

Legislative Assembly (FPTP) [1]
PartyVotes %SwingSeatsChange
  Reform League Ministerialists 55,42636.14−5.9335Decrease2.svg 12
  Labour 49,92236.14+14.5417Increase2.svg 5
  Liberal Oppositionists 37,42224.40+6.3112Decrease2.svg 3
  Independent Ministerialists 7,5544.93−8.522Decrease2.svg 5
  Independent Labour 2,1081.37−0.501Decrease2.svg 1
  Independent 9450.62+0.620Steady2.svg
 Formal votes153,37799.03−0.62
 Informal votes1,4980.97+0.62
 Total154,87567
 Registered voters / turnout277,00663.38−2.03

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 "Australian Politics and Elections Database: 1 June 1904". University of Western Australia . Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  2. "The Constitution Act 1903". AustLII.