FEDERAL ELECTIONS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 94, 15 January 1920, Page 5

FEDERAL ELECTIONS

FINAL RETURNS STATE OF PARTIES By Telegraph—Presß Association-Copyright Melbourne, January 11. The final figures show tho Federal state of parties to be: Nationalist 38 Labour 2C Farmers 11 —Press Assn. REARRANGEMENT OF CABINET DEFEAT OP BF/FEKENDUM PROPOSALS. (Ecc. January It, 7.13 p.m.) Melbourne, January 11. Tho Federal Cabinet is considering a I rearrangement of the Cabinet necessitated by tho defeat of certain Ministers, I and also constitutional alterations necessary owing to the defeat of the referendum proposals, and the amendment of the tariff.—Press Assn. preferential] voting SYSTEM SEVERELY CRITICISED. Hobart, January 5. Tho Senate system of preferential voting is severely criticised in Tasmania by Nationalists as well as by Labourites. Tho "Mercury" says it is natural that the supporters of Labour in the Commonwealth should be feeling very soro over the working of the system of voting which on tho present occasion has almost wiped them out. "In our own State," the "Mercury" adds, "it Ins completely done so. The disgust is not confined to members of the .Labour Party, but personally we endorse the local designation of the result of tho election for the Senate as 'the Senato scandal,' and 'probably many members of the Nationalist. Party take the same view. There- is a very considerable anomaly in the fact that the man who actually received the highest number of No. 1 votes in '.the whole poll, and n ho, therefore, under the old system of polling, would have come out at the. Tcp of the poll as the first of the 10 .candidates,, should fail to get a scat. Still more anomalous is the fact that when Labour candidates received tho votes of 21,190 electors to the Nationalists' 35,102 Labour should not secure a single representative. This is a result neither just nor wholesome, and no honest man can support it for a moment. The sooner tho system of voting is changed _ for one less uniust and more proportional the better for the moral and the reputation of Australia."—Sydney "Sun."