1959 Western Australian state election

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1959 Western Australian state election
Flag of Western Australia.svg
  1956 21 March 1959 (1959-03-21) 1962  

All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
  DavidBrand1963.jpg Albert Hawke 1965.jpg
Leader David Brand Albert Hawke
Party Liberal/Country coalition Labor
Leader since1 March 19573 July 1951
Leader's seat Greenough Northam
Last election19 seats29 seats
Seats won25 seats23 seats
Seat changeIncrease2.svg6Decrease2.svg6
Percentage44.03%44.92%
SwingIncrease2.svg5.65Decrease2.svg4.78

Premier before election

Albert Hawke
Labor

Resulting Premier

David Brand
Liberal/Country coalition

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 21 March 1959 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The result was a hung parliament—the two-term Labor government, led by Premier Albert Hawke, was defeated with an average swing against it of about 7 per cent, but the Liberal-Country Party coalition, led by Opposition Leader David Brand, won exactly half of the seats, and needed the support of at least one of the two Independent Liberal members to obtain a majority in the Assembly. The situation remained precarious throughout the term—while Bill Grayden joined the LCL the following year, giving the Coalition a one-seat majority, the other Independent Liberal, Edward Oldfield, joined the Labor Party.

Contents

Results

Western Australian state election, 21 March 1959
Legislative Assembly
<< 19561962 >>

Enrolled voters292,596 [1]
Votes cast269,322 Turnout 92.05%–0.13%
Informal votes6,937Informal2.58%–0.26%
Summary of votes by party
PartyPrimary votes %SwingSeatsChange
  Labor 117,86144.92%–4.78%23– 6
  Liberal and Country 98,33537.48%+4.34%17+ 6
  Country 17,1796.55%+1.31%8± 0
  Democratic Labor 13,4365.12%+5.12%0± 0
 Ind. Lib.10,0083.81%–2.92%2± 0
  Communist 2,2160.84%+0.35%0± 0
  Independent 3,3501.28%–3.42%0± 0
Total262,385  50 
1 362,629 electors were enrolled to vote at the election, but 11 seats (22% of the total) were uncontested—2 Labor seats (three less than 1956) representing 16,115 enrolled voters, 5 LCL seats (the same as 1956) representing 33,484 enrolled voters, and 4 Country seats (two less than 1956) representing 20,434 enrolled voters.

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