ANALYSIS OF ELECTION FIGURES

Chronicle (Levin), 31 December 1946, Page 2

ANALYSIS OF ELECTION FIGURES

Total valid votes cast at tlie general election for tlie House of Eepresentatives on November 27 are sliown by the conipleted offieial retums to liave reached the record high ilgure of 1,046,911. This is the first time that the .votes at a New Zealand general election have exceeded the 1,000,000 mark. The Labour Partv, which obtained 42 of the 80 seats in the House, received 530,79S of these votes, and the National i Party, which won the other 38 seats, polled 507,043 votes. Candidates outside the two main parties secured only 3070 votes. These candidates, who included Communists and Independents, all forfeited their nomination deposits of £10 for failure to poll at least a quarter of the votes obtained by the suceessful candidate. The Labour Party, which therefore had a majority of 29,755 votes over the National Party, obtain 51.275 per cent. of the total votq, the National Party 48.432 per cent., and other candidates accounted for the small balance of .293' per cent. An analysis of the figures sliows that Labour had a majority of 1S,590 in the 76 Euroi>ean seats and one of 11,165 in the four Maori eleetorates. It holds oitiee, however, solely by virtue of a working majority of the four Maori memberd,- for . the.. European seats are evenly held by the Labour Party and the National Party with 38 ! seats eacli. Each party won 25 seats in the North Island and 13 in the South Island. Labour 's~advantage,.of votes in the European seats caiue exclusively from the Soutli Island. Actually the National Party had a majority of 1465 in the North Island, but Labour had a majority of 20.055 in the Soutli Island to give tlie Governuieiit ils net European majority of 18,590 votes. Summary of Votes. European Seats — Lab. Nat. Others North Island 328,832 330,297 1480 Soutli Island 184,886 164,831 452 Total * 513,718 195,128 1932 Maori Seats 23,080 11,915 1138 Grand total 536,798 507,043 3O70 The Serviee votes, which are included in the above' figures, totalled 7932. They were distributed as follows: Lab. Nat. Others North Island 3162 2016 4 South Island .. .. 1481 71 6 • — Maori 136 95 2 Total 5079 2847 6 In tlie new Parliament there are tliree cases of members with tlie same names. In tlie Laliour Party there is the Minister of Kehabilitation, tlie IIon. C. E. Skinner, and Mr. T. E. Skinner, who was returned for the new electorate of Tamaki. There is the Minister

of Supply, IIon. D. G. Sullivan, nml Mr. 1 W. Sullivan (National, Ihiy of Plenty),' and Wallace lias returned II r. T. L. ; Macdonald (National), wliile the new i electoral district of Ponsonby is repre- i sented by Mr. R. Macdonald (Labour).