1 June 1904 (1904-06-01) 1907 → seats 12 seats 36.14 32.55 | 1904 1904 35 seats 17 seats +30.86 14.54% | |
![]() | ||
The 1908 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on 1 June 1904 to elect 55 of the 67 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. The other 12 seats were uncontested.
The election was in one and two member districts, using first past the post (plurality) voting.
Background
Ministerialists were a group of members of parliament who supported a government in office but were not bound by tight party discipline. Ministerialists represented loose pre-party groupings who held seats in state parliaments up to 1914. Such members ran for office as independents or under a variety of political labels but saw themselves as linked to other candidates by their support for a particular premier or government.
Thomas Bent was elected on 16 February 1904 leader of the Commonwealth Liberal Party, replacing Premier William Irvine who went into federal politics, and went into the election as the incumbent Premier. In 1904 George Prendergast became the first leader of the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party. At the June 1904 election Bent won a comfortable majority.