1 October 1988 (1988-10-01) 1992 → 26 October 1982 1988 31 seats 10 seats Start date October 1, 1988 | 9 September 1981 26 October 1982 47 seats 31 seats 46 seats 33 seats | |
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The 1988 Victorian state election, held on Saturday, 1 October 1988, was for the 51st Parliament of Victoria. It was held in the Australian state of Victoria to elect all 88 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 22 members of the 44-member Legislative Council.
Contents
The incumbent Labor Party government led by Premier John Cain won a third term in office, despite a swing against it, and only lost the seat of Warrandyte in Melbourne's north-east. This was credited by commentators to a strong campaign targeting Liberal leader Jeff Kennett whose aggressive leadership style was still seen as a liability, as well as continuing instability in the federal Coalition. Its narrow wins in middle class marginal seats saw it win a majority despite achieving less than half of the two party preferred vote.
Seats changing hands
Aftermath
On 23 May 1989, Jeff Kennett was voted out of the Liberal leadership in favour of Alan Brown; Brown led the party until 23 April 1991 when he was also forced out after a successful comeback by Kennett. During Brown's period as Opposition Leader, the Liberals negotiated the first coalition agreement with the Nationals in over forty years, in part due to a belief by some (in spite of what political scientist Brian Costar called a "lack of psephological evidence to support this assertion") that had the parties been in coalition at the election, they would have won.