1931 New Zealand general election

Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox election The 1931 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 24th term. It resulted in the newly formed coalition between the United Party and the Reform Party remaining in office as the United–Reform Coalition Government, although the opposition Labour Party made some minor gains despite tallying more votes than any other single party.

Background

In the 1928 election, the Reform Party won 28 seats to the United Party's 27 seats. Shortly after the election the Reform Party lost a vote of no-confidence and the United Party managed to form a government, the United Government, with the support of the Labour Party, with governing Reform Party going into the opposition. In 1931, however, the agreement between United and Labour collapsed due to differing opinions on how to counter the Great Depression. The Reform Party, fearing that the Depression would give Labour a substantial boost, reluctantly agreed to form a coalition with United to avert elections. By forming a coalition, United and Reform were able to blunt Labour's advantage, ending the possibility of the anti-Labour vote being split.

The election

The date for the main 1931 elections was 2 December, a Wednesday. Elections to the four Māori electorates were held the day before. 874,787 people were registered to vote, and there was a turnout of 83.3%. This turnout was below average for the time period.

The number of seats was 80, a number which had been fixed since 1902.<ref name="General elections 1853-2005">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, in four electorates (Bay of Plenty, Oroua, Pahiatua, Template:NZ electorate link) there was only one candidate.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Results

File:Crowd in Willis Street, Wellington, awaiting the results of the 1931 general election.jpg

Crowd on intersection of Willis and Mercer Streets in Wellington, outside the offices of The Evening Post, awaiting the results of the 1931 general election.

The 1931 election saw the recently formed governing coalition retain office as the United–Reform Coalition, winning fifty-one seats, including four independents. This was a drop of four seats from what the two parties had won in the previous elections, but was still considerably better than many had expected given the economic situation. The Labour Party won twenty-four seats, a gain of five. In the popular vote (including pro-coalition independents), the coalition won 54.0% of the vote, down from the 66.1% that the two parties had won previously. Labour won 34.3%. The only other party to gain a place in Parliament was the Country Party, which won a single seat. Four other independents were elected. Four candidates were elected unopposed: Walter Broadfoot in Template:NZ electorate link, John Cobbe in Template:NZ electorate link, Alfred Ransom in Template:NZ electorate link, and Kenneth Williams in Template:NZ electorate link.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Party totals

File:1931 New Zealand general election - Simple.svg

Winning party by electorate.

File:1931 nz parliament.svg
Election results
Party			Leader	Votes	Percentage		Seats	change
Template:Party color cell	rowspan=3 Template:Party color cell	Reform	Gordon Coates	190,170	26.60	54.03	28	±0
Template:Party color cell	United	George Forbes	120,801	16.90	19		-8
Template:Party color cell	Independents (in support of Coalition)		75,069	10.53	4		+3
colspan=2 Template:Party color cell	Labour	Harry Holland	244,867	34.27		24	+5
colspan=2 Template:Party color cell	Country Party	Harold Rushworth	16,710	2.34		1	±0
colspan=2 Template:Party color cell	Ratana		7,154	1.00		0	±0
colspan=2 Template:Party color cell	Independents		66,894	8.36		4	-1
Total				714,511	100%		80

Votes summary

Template:Bar box <section begin="Electorate results" />The following table shows the detailed results:

Key

Template:NZ electorate result start |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result uncontested Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold |-

| Hauraki
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| colspan=3 style="text-align:center;background-color:Template:Reform Party (New Zealand)/meta/shading;" | Walter William Massey
| style="text-align:right;" | 2,750<ref name="AS 9 Dec" />
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | Charles Robert Petrie

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result uncontested Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result uncontested Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result change Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result uncontested Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold |-

|colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates

|- Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold Template:NZ electorate result hold |}

Table footnotes: Template:Reflist

• Four of the eight independent MPs (Connolly, Hargest, McSkimming, and Polson) were aligned with the United–Reform Coalition, and are not classified as independents by some sources.<section end="Electorate results" />

References

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