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1853 New Zealand general election

General election in New Zealand

Field	Value
election_name	1853 New Zealanders general election
country	New Zealand
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
next_election	1855 New Zealand general election
next_year	1855
elected_members	2nd New Zealand Parliament
seats_for_election	All 37 seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives
election_date	14 July – 1 October 1853
elected_mps	[elected members](1st-new-zealand-parliament)
image1	[[File:No image.png	150px]]
party1	Independent politician
last_election1	37 seats
seats1	37
seat_change1	37

The 1853 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's first term. It was the first national election ever held in New Zealand, although Parliament did not yet have full authority to govern the colony, which was part of the British Empire at that time. Elections for the first provincial councils and their Superintendents were held at the same time.

Background

The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, established a bicameral New Zealand Parliament, with the lower house (the House of Representatives) being elected by popular vote. Votes were to be cast under a simple FPP system, and the secret ballot had not yet been introduced.

To qualify as a voter, one needed to be male, to be a British subject, to be at least 21 years old, to own a certain value of land, and to not be serving a criminal sentence. One of the candidates elected (on 27 August, for Christchurch Country) was a landowner, but at 20 years and 7 months was not yet 21: he was James Stuart-Wortley.

At the time of the 1853 elections, there were no political parties in New Zealand. As such, all candidates were independents.

The election

In the 1853 elections, election day was different in each seat. The first seat to be elected was Bay of Islands on 14 July, and the final election day was on 1 October. Hugh Carleton (Bay of Islands) was the first MP ever elected in New Zealand (though he was elected unopposed), so he liked to be called the Father of the House.

There were 5,849 people registered to vote.

The total number of seats was 37.

Twenty-four electoral districts were used. Some districts elected multiple MPs (they elected using block voting). Wellington and Auckland had three members each. Suburbs of Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hutt, Nelson, Northern, Pensioner, Southern and Waimea each had two members. Thirteen members were elected in single-member districts using first past the post. Some parts of the colony were not part of any district and did not have representation in Parliament.

Results

Electorate	Province	Election date
Akaroa	Canterbury	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Auckland}}	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Auckland}}	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Auckland}}	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
Bay of Islands	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Canterbury	{{dts	format=dmy
	Canterbury	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of Christchurch]]	Canterbury	{{dts	format=dmy
	Otago	{{dts	format=dmy
	Otago	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of Dunedin]]	Otago	{{dts	format=dmy
Grey and Bell	New Plymouth	{{dts	format=dmy
	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of Lyttelton]]	Canterbury	{{dts	format=dmy
Motueka and Massacre Bay	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of Nelson}}	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of Nelson}}	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
Town of New Plymouth]]	New Plymouth	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
Omata	New Plymouth	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Auckland	{{dts	format=dmy
	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
Wairau	Nelson	{{dts	format=dmy
Wanganui and Rangitikei	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Wellington}}	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Wellington}}	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
City of Wellington}}	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy
Wellington Country	Wellington	{{dts	format=dmy

References

Bibliography

{{cite book |author-link=Guy Scholefield |orig-year= First ed. published 1913
{{cite book |orig-year= First ed. published 1913

References

"General elections 1853-2005 - dates & turnout". Elections New Zealand.
(23 April 2009). "An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". [[Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Info: 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.

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