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1893 South Australian colonial election

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Field	Value
election_name	1893 South Australian colonial election
country	South Australia
flag_year	1876
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1890 South Australian colonial election
previous_year	1890
next_election	1896 South Australian colonial election
next_year	1896
registered	73,619
turnout	67.6% ( 14.5 pp)
outgoing_members	outgoing members
elected_members	elected members
seats_for_election	All 54 seats in the South Australian House of Assembly
(28 seats needed for a majority)
election_date	15 April – 6 May 1893
image1
leader1	N/A
leader_since1	N/A
colour1	888
party1	Independent
leaders_seat1	N/A
popular_vote1	51,805
percentage1	59.0%
swing1	41.0 pp
last_election1	54 seats
seats_before1	52
seats1	26
seat_change1	26
image2
leader2	John Downer
leader_since2	N/A
colour2	080cab
party2	National Defence
leaders_seat2	Barossa
popular_vote2	19,438
percentage2	22.2%
swing2	22.2 pp
last_election2	Did not exist
seats_before2	0
seats2	18
seat_change2	18
image3
leader3	John McPherson
leader_since3
colour3	f00011
party3	United Labor
leaders_seat3	East Adelaide
popular_vote3	16,458
percentage3	18.8%
swing3	18.8 pp
last_election3	Did not exist
seats_before3	2
seats3	10
seat_change3	8
title	Premier
before_election	John Downer
before_party	National Defence
after_election	John Downer
after_party	National Defence

(28 seats needed for a majority)

The 1893 South Australian colonial election was held between 15 April and 6 May 1893 to elect members to the 14th Parliament of South Australia. All 54 seats in the House of Assembly (the lower house, whose members were elected at the 1890 election) were up for re-election. This was the first state election contested by political parties; United Labor was formed in January 1891, which also led to the formation of the conservative National Defence League that same year. Independents won 26 seats, making them the largest contingency in the House. John Downer, the leader of the National Defence League, remained Premier for eight days after the formation of the new Parliament before he was replaced by Charles Kingston, who would remain Premier for six years.

The election used non-compulsory plurality block voting, in which electors voted for as many candidates as they wished. Members of the House of Assembly were elected to 27 multi-member districts consisting of two seats each. Suffrage extended to men (including Aboriginals) over 21 years of age, unless they were "attainted or convicted of treason or felony".

Background

A United Trades and Labor Council meeting with the purpose of creating an elections committee was convened on 12 December 1890, and held on 7 January 1891. The elections committee was formed, officially named the United Labor Party of South Australia with McPherson the founding secretary. Later that year, the ULP enjoyed immediate success, electing David Charleston, Robert Guthrie and Andrew Kirkpatrick to the South Australian Legislative Council. A week later, Richard Hooper won the 1891 Wallaroo by-election as an Independent Labor member in the South Australian House of Assembly. McPherson won the 1892 East Adelaide by-election on 23 January, becoming the first official Labor leader and member of the House of Assembly. At the 1893 election, ten Labor candidates including McPherson and Hooper were elected to the 54-member House of Assembly which gave the ULP the balance of power. So successful, a decade later at the 1905 election, Thomas Price would form the world's first stable Labor government. John Verran led Labor to form the state's first of many majority governments at the 1910 election.

In response to the ULP, the second party in South Australia formed − the National Defence League (NDL), created by the conservative forces in the colony, and this sharpened the existing conflict with the more 'radical groups'. It also reflected a trend for the conservative members to gravitate to the NDL, and the progressive members to support Kingston, a strong advocate of progressive social policy and reform of the Legislative Council. One issue which was increasingly dividing the Kingston liberal group and the NDL was the restrictive franchise for the Legislative Council. By the 1893 election, both the ULP and NDL had built up impressive electoral organisations. There was no "Liberal" or "Kingston" party, but there was a relatively cohesive Kingston group among both independent members and candidates. The Liberal and Democratic Union would not be formed until the 1906 election.

Results

Party	Votes	Seats	Votes	%	Swing (pp)	Seats	Change
		Independent	51,805	59.0	–41.0	26	26
		National Defence	19,438	22.2	+22.2	18	18
		United Labor	16,458	18.8	+18.8	10	8
Total	87,701	100.0	–	54
Informal votes	649	1.3	–0.3
Turnout	49,833	67.6	+14.5
Registered voters	73,619	–	–
Source: ECSA

References

Jaencsh, Dean. (March 2007). "History of South Australian Elections, 1857–2006, House of Assembly, Volume 1".

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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