1946 New Zealand general election

Template:Short description Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox election The 1946 New Zealand general election was a nationwide vote to determine the shape of the New Zealand Parliament's 28th term. It saw the governing Labour Party re-elected, but by a substantially narrower margin than in the three previous elections. The National Party continued its gradual rise.

Background

The Labour Party had been in government since winning the 1935 elections, and had been re-elected twice. However, the National Party had managed to overcome the internal problems which had once troubled it, and now presented a credible threat to Labour. National's leader, Sidney Holland, was proving more effective than his predecessor, while the Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, was weary and in poor health. The after-effects of World War II, including ongoing shortages, were affecting the government's popularity.

The next New Zealand census was scheduled for 1946, but having had to postpone the 1941 census due to WWII, the government brought it forward. The 1945 census was held on Tuesday, 25 September, so that the results could be used for the 1946 electoral redistribution prior to the planned 1946 election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In August 1945, there was a first hint that the government considered abolishing the country quota through the Electoral Amendment Act, 1945.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The amendment bill was introduced on 18 October 1945 and proposed the complete abolition of the country quota and that electorates be based on adult, as opposed to total, population.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Electoral Amendment Act, 1945 was given royal assent on 12 November<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and it reduced the number and increased the size of rural electorates. None of the existing electorates remained unchanged, 26 electorates were abolished, 19 electorates were created for the first time, and six former electorates were re-established.Template:Sfn The 1946 electoral redistribution had to take ten years of population growth and movements into account. The North Island gained a further two electorates from the South Island due to faster population growth.

MPs retiring in 1946

Five Labour MPs and one National MP intended to retire at the end of the Parliament.

Party		Name	Electorate
rowspan=5 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Labour	Joe Hodgens	Palmerston North
Leonard Lowry		Otaki
Peter Neilson		Dunedin Central
Ben Roberts		Wairarapa
Paddy Webb		Buller
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	National	Adam Hamilton	Wallace

Date of election

The election should have been held earlier. The 27th parliament "forgot to mark the calendar, forgot the previous election had been earlier than usual and accidentally ran for two extra months".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The election

The date for the main 1946 elections was 27 November, a Wednesday. Elections to the four Māori electorates were held the day before. 1,081,898 people were registered to vote, and there was a turnout of 93.5%. This turnout was the highest ever recorded at this point. The number of seats being contested was 80, a number which had been fixed since 1902.<ref name="General elections 1853-2005">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Election results

Party standings

The 1946 election saw the governing Labour Party retain office by a four-seat margin, winning forty-two seats to the National Party's thirty-eight. In the popular vote — Labour won 51.3% and National won 48.4%. The election was a straight fight between the two main parties (unlike the Template:NZ election link), and only 8 of the 76 European electorates had more than two candidates. The Democratic Labour Party did not take part, and National absorbed many of the miscellaneous candidates and splinter movements. The European electorates divided equally and the Maori seats decided the issue. Template:Sfn

No other parties won any significant share of the vote, and no independents were elected — only 0.3% of voters did not support one of the two major parties. After Harry Atmore of Nelson died, no candidate who was not from the two main parties managed to enter Parliament until the 1966 elections, when the Social Credit Party won its first seat.

File:1946 nz parliament.svg
Election results
Party		Candidates	Total votes	Percentage	Seats won	Change
Template:Party name with colour	80	536,994	51.28	42	-3
Template:Party name with colour	80	507,149	48.43	38	+4
Template:Party name with colour	3	1,181	0.11	0	±0
Template:Party name with colour	9	2,886	0.18	0	-1
	Total	172	1,047,210		80

Initial MPs

<section begin="Electorate results" />The table below shows the results of the 1946 general election:

Key

Template:NZ electorate result start |-

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

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

| Hauraki
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| colspan=3 style="text-align:center;background-color:Template:New Zealand National Party/meta/shading;" | Andy Sutherland
| style="text-align:right;" | 2,891
| style="background-color:Template:Party color;" |
| style="text-align:center;" | John William Neate

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|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<section end="Electorate results" />

References

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