The 1951 general election was held on Saturday, 1 September.[1] A total of 80 MPs were elected; 49 represented North Island electorates, 27 represented South Island electorates, and the remaining four represented Māori electorates; this was the same distribution used since the 1946 election.[2] 1,205,762 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 89.1%.[1]
Sessions
The 30th Parliament sat for five sessions (there were two sessions in 1954), and was prorogued on 4 October 1954.[3]
Session
Opened
Adjourned
first
25 September 1951
6 December 1951
second
25 June 1952
24 October 1952
third
8 April 1953
27 November 1953
fourth
12 January 1954
13 January 1954
fifth
22 June 1954
1 October 1954
Ministries
The National Party under Sidney Holland had been in power since the 1949 election, and Holland remained in charge until 1957, when he stepped down due to ill health.[4]
Overview of seats
The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1951 election and at dissolution:
The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.
Initial composition of the 30th Parliament
The 1951 election saw the governing National Party re-elected with a twenty-seat margin, a substantial improvement on the twelve-seat margin it previously held. National won fifty seats compared with the Labour Party's thirty.[5] The popular vote was closer, however, with National winning 54% to Labour's 46%.[6] No seats were won by minor party candidates or by independents.[7] This was the last New Zealand general election in which any party has ever captured a majority of the popular vote.[6]Key LabourNational
Electorate results for the 1951 New Zealand general election[8]
Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN0-474-00177-6.
Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN0-475-11200-8.
Wilson, Jim (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4thed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC154283103.
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