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All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly 26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 14 February 1953 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The two-term Liberal- Country Party coalition government, led by Premier Sir Ross McLarty, was defeated by the Labor Party, led by Opposition Leader Albert Hawke.
The election was notable in that 22 of the 50 seats were not contested at the election. Only two other elections—those held in 1890 and 1894—had a greater percentage or number of uncontested seats.
Date | Event |
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7 January 1953 | The Legislative Council was prorogued and the Legislative Assembly was dissolved. [1] |
23 January 1953 | Writs were issued by the Governor to proceed with an election. [2] |
30 January 1953 | Close of nominations. |
14 February 1953 | Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm. |
23 February 1953 | The McLarty–Watts Ministry resigned and the Hawke Ministry was sworn in. |
27 February 1953 | The writ was returned and the results formally declared. |
6 August 1953 | Parliament was summoned for business. [3] |
Western Australian state election, 14 February 1953 | ||||||
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Enrolled voters | 205,644 [1] | |||||
Votes cast | 192,225 | Turnout | 93.47% | +0.86% | ||
Informal votes | 5,028 | Informal | 2.62% | +0.64% | ||
Summary of votes by party | ||||||
Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | Change | |
Labor | 93,157 | 49.76% | +7.92% | 26 | + 3 | |
Liberal and Country | 71,042 | 37.95% | –2.13% | 15 | ± 0 | |
Country | 9,196 | 4.91% | –4.40% | 9 | ± 0 | |
Ind. Lib. | 3,458 | 1.85% | –0.40% | 0 | – 2 | |
Communist | 1,350 | 0.72% | +0.36% | 0 | ± 0 | |
Independent | 8,994 | 4.80% | –1.35% | 0 | – 1 | |
Total | 192,225 | 50 |