Tasmanian state election, 1948

21 August 1948

All 30 seats to the House of Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	Robert Cosgrove	Neil Campbell
Party	Labor	Liberal
Leader since	25 February 1948	February 1945
Leader's seat	Denison	Wilmot
Last election	16 seats	12 seats
Seats won	15 seats	12 seats
Seat change	1	0
Percentage	49.38%	37.84%
Swing	1.59	3.59

Premier before election

Robert Cosgrove
Labor

Elected Premier

Robert Cosgrove
Labor

A general election for the House of Assembly was held in the Australian state of Tasmania on 21 August 1948.

Background

In December 1947, Labor leader Robert Cosgrove had stood down as Premier while he faced charges of bribery, corruption and conspiracy. Cosgrove was acquitted of all charges on 22 February 1948, and was re-elected as Premier by the caucus, taking over from Edward Brooker who had filled in for him for three months. Brooker died on 18 June, four months after handing the premiership back to Cosgrove, and two months prior to the 1948 election.^[1]

On 8 July, the Legislative Council voted to grant the House of Assembly two months supply provided an election was called after that time. The election was fought mainly on constitutional issues.^[1]

Results

Tasmanian state election, 21 August 1948 House of Assembly << 1946 — 1950 >>
Enrolled voters		161,088
Votes cast		148,588		Turnout	92.24%	+1.17%
Informal votes		5,866		Informal	3.95%	–6.13%
Summary of votes by party
Party		Primary votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Labor	70,476	49.38%	–1.59%	15	– 1
	Liberal	54,010	37.84%	+3.59%	12	± 0
	Ind. Lib.	9,729	6.82%	–1.96%	1	± 0
	Independent	8,330	5.84%	–0.17%	2	+ 1
Total		142,722			30

Distribution of Seats

Electorate	Seats won
Bass
Darwin
Denison
Franklin
Wilmot

	Labor
	Liberal
	Ind. Lib.
	Independent

Aftermath

Labor lost its slender one seat majority, winning 15 seats out of 30, although they regained government and Cosgrove remained as Premier after receiving the support of one of the Independent members, Bill Wedd.^[1]

References

1 2 3 W. A. Townsley, Cosgrove, Sir Robert (1884 - 1969), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, Melbourne University Press, 1993, pp 505-507.

External links

Assembly Election Results, 1948, Parliament of Tasmania.
Report on Parliamentary Elections, 1949, 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

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.