Parliament of Western Australia Legislative Council election
Election of 27 July 1896
Government support in Legislative Council at and after election
Composition of the Legislative Council and seats to be filled at this election
Enrolment and voting
Western Australia, Legislative Council votes and seats won, and seats held
Elections held in 27 July 1896
Criteria for the inclusion of parties in this table are set out in the Glossary under 'listed party'
| Party Name | Candidates n | First preference vote n | First preference vote share % | Change from previous election % | Seats won by party n | Seats won by party % | Uncontested seats at this election n | Seats held by party n | Seats held by party % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independents (no disciplined party groupings) | 12 | 1,562 | 100.00 | 0.00 | 7 | 100.00 | 3 | 21 | 100.00 |
| Totals | 12 | 1,562 | 100.00 | 7 | 100.00 | 3 | 21 | 100.00 |
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Notes
History of the Legislative Council: For information and references on the origins and early history of the Legislative Council, see the notes for the 1894 Legislative Council elections.
Franchise: The franchise for the Legislative Council was conferred on men of at least twenty-one years of age who were British subjects '... and have resided in Western Australia for at least twelve months. Electors had to satisfy a property qualification, i.e., possess freehold property worth at least One Hundred Pounds, as a householder occupy a dwelling of clear annual value of Twenty-Five Pounds ...., hold a leasehold estate of similar annual value, or hold a mining or pastoral lease with an annual rental of at least Ten Pounds. Aboriginals were debarred from voting except in terms of the freehold qualification', David Black, Legislative Council, p. 4 (see 'Sources', below). Plural voting was permitted for those who had the qualifications for the franchise in more than one of the seven provinces (electoral districts) for the Legislative Council.
Qualifications for candidates: To be eligible for election to the Legislative Council, candidates had to be men who were electors '... of at least thirty years of age who had resided in the colony for two years and were natural born British subjects or had been naturalised for at least five years prior to the election', David Black, Legislative Council, p. 4 (see 'Sources', below)
Electoral system and voting: The Legislative Council had 21 members chosen from seven multimember electoral districts called provinces, each returning 3 members. The members had staggered six year fixed terms, one of the three members from each province retiring every two years.
First past the post (plurality) voting was used to count the votes '... with voters asked to strike out the names of those candidates for whom they did not wish to vote', David Black, Legislative Council, p. 4 (see 'Sources', below).
Missing information for these elections: No information on enrolment is available for any of the electoral districts at these elections; the enrolment figures in the 'Enrolment and voting' table above are taken from the 1894 elections for all provinces except Central and East provinces. In these two provinces, the figures for votes cast have been entered as notional enrolment figures; this is likely to have inflated the figure for turnout.
References: For a description of the context of electoral politics in Western Australia's first decades of self-government, see Brian de Garis, 'Self-Government and the Emergence of Political Parties, 1890-1911', in David Black (editor), The House on the Hill: A History of the Parliament of Western Australia 1832-1990, pp 63-95 , (Perth: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project, Parliament of Western Australia, 1991, ISBN 0730939839).
Sources
Information for this election was taken from David Black, Legislative Council of Western Australia: Membership Register, Electoral Law and Statistics 1890-1989, (Perth: Western Australian Parliamentary History Project, 1989, revised 1991, ISBN 0730936414).