16 (Māori) & 17 December (general) 1919 1922 → 1909 1913 40 seats, 47.1% 34 seats, 43.1% Start date 1919 | Turnout 80.5% 1913 1919 34 seats, 43.1% N/A | |
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Winner William Massey | ||
The New Zealand general election of 1919 was held on Tuesday, 16 December in the Māori electorates, and on Wednesday, 17 December in the general electorates to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 20th session of the New Zealand Parliament. A total number of 560,673 (80.5%) voters turned out to vote.
Contents
In 1919 women won the right to be elected to the House of Representatives. The law was changed late in 1919, and with only three weeks notice, three women stood for Parliament in 1919.
They were Ellen Melville in Grey Lynn, Rosetta Baume in Parnell, and Mrs Aileen Cooke in Thames. Ellen Melville stood for the Reform Party and came second. She stood for Parliament several more times, but while generally polling well she never won a seat.
Results
Though Labour Party captured only eight seats it received a quarter of the votes – a shock to conservative minds due to Labour being founded only three years earlier in 1916.
Electorate results
The table below shows the results of the 1919 general election:
Key
Summary of changes
A boundary redistribution resulted in the abolition of four electorates:
At the same time, four new electorates were created: