Tasmanian state election, 1931

9 May 1931

All 30 seats to the House of Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	John McPhee	Albert Ogilvie
Party	Nationalist	Labor
Leader since	July 1925	October 1929
Leader's seat	Denison	Franklin
Last election	15 seats	14 seats
Seats won	19 seats	10 seats
Seat change	4	4
Percentage	56.40%	34.92%
Swing	14.20	12.23

Premier before election

John McPhee
Nationalist

Elected Premier

John McPhee
Nationalist

A general election for the House of Assembly was held in the Australian state of Tasmania on 9 May 1931.

Background

The Nationalist Party had defeated Labor by one seat at the 1928 election, and John McPhee had been Premier of Tasmania since then. Joseph Lyons had retired from state politics after his 1928 defeat and had entered federal politics, and the Labor Party was now led by Albert Ogilvie.

Results

Tasmanian state election, 9 May 1931 House of Assembly << 1928 — 1934 >>
Enrolled voters		118,730
Votes cast		112,779		Turnout	94.99%	+13.10%
Informal votes		3,885		Informal	3.44%	+0.20%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Nationalist	61,414	56.40%	+14.20%	19	+ 4
	Labor	38,030	34.92%	–12.23%	10	– 4
	Independent	9,450	8.68%	–2.07%	1	± 0
Total		108,894			30

Distribution of Seats

Electorate	Seats won
Bass
Darwin
Denison
Franklin
Wilmot

	Nationalist
	Labor
	Independent

Aftermath

The Nationalist Party won the 1931 election in a landslide, with an over 22 per cent margin over Labor, and taking a nineteen seats in the House of Assembly. This was the largest victory over Labor in Tasmania since Hare-Clark elections began in 1909, and was attributed to public endorsement of McPhee's expenditure cuts over Ogilvie's expansionist policies.^[1]

The high turnout of voting in the election was due to the implementation of compulsory voting clauses of the Electoral Act for the first time.^[2]

References

↑ R. P. Davis, McPhee, Sir John Cameron (1878 - 1952), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 355-356.
↑ Report on General Election, 1931, Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

External links

Assembly Election Results, 1931, Parliament of Tasmania.
Report on General Election, 1931, Tasmanian Electoral Commission.

Elections and referendums in Tasmania

General elections	1856 1861 1862 1866 1871 1872 1877 1882 1886 1891 1893 1897 1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1913 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1941 1946 1948 1950 1955 1956 1959 1964 1969 1972 1976 1979 1982 1986 1989 1992 1996 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 next

Legislative Council elections	1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Referendums	1898 1899 1916 1968 1981

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