Battle of Locust Grove

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Elections were held in the Australian state of Victoria on 15 July 1961 to elect the 66 members of the state's Legislative Assembly and 17 members of the 34-member Legislative Council. MLAs were elected for three year terms and MLCs were elected for six year terms. All were elected in single-member districts or provinces using preferential voting.

The Liberal and Country Party (LCP) government of Premier Henry Bolte won a third term in office. It was the first Victorian election at which all seats in both houses were contested by at least two candidates, and the first at which both houses were contested on the same day.

Key dates

Date Event
24 May 1961 The Parliament was prorogued.[1]
1 June 1961 Writs were issued by the Administrator to proceed with an election.[2]
23 June 1961 Close of nominations.
15 July 1961 Polling day, between the hours of 8am and 6pm.
28 July 1961 The Bolte Ministry was reconstituted, with two new ministers sworn in.[3]
1 August 1961 The writ was returned and the results formally declared.
1 August 1961 Parliament resumed for business.[4]

Results

Legislative Assembly

See also: Results of the 1961 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly)

The election produced almost no change in the electoral balance.

Victorian state election, 15 July 1961[5]
Legislative Assembly
<< 1958–1964 >>

Enrolled voters 1,554,856
Votes cast 1,554,856 Turnout 94.41 +0.18
Informal votes 35,937 Informal 2.45 +0.67
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats Change
  Labor 552,015 38.55 +0.86 17 – 1
  Liberal and Country 521,777 36.44 –0.74 39 ± 0
  Democratic Labor 242,753 16.95 +2.53 0 ± 0
  Country 102,184 7.14 –2.16 9 ± 0
  Other 3,722 0.26 +0.16 0 ± 0
  Independent 9,474 0.66 –0.64 1 + 1
Total 1,431,925     66  
Two-party-preferred
  Liberal and Country 829,977 57.9 +0.1
  Labor 602,493 42.1 –0.1

Legislative Council

See also: Results of the 1961 Victorian state election (Legislative Council)

Victorian state election, 15 July 1961[6]
Legislative Council
<< 1958–1964 >>

Enrolled voters 1,554,856
Votes cast 1,467,482 Turnout 94.3 +8.0
Informal votes 46,697 Informal 3.2 +1.5
Summary of votes by party
Party Primary votes % Swing Seats
won 		Seats
held
  Labor 552,075 38.9 –0.3 4 9
  Liberal and Country 538,013 37.9 +2.1 9 17
  Democratic Labor 237,464 16.7 +1.8 0 0
  Country 88,416 6.2 +0.7 4 8
  Independent 4,817 0.3 +0.3 0 0
Total 1,420,785     17 34

Seats changing hands

Seat Pre-1961 Swing Post-1961
Party Member Margin Margin Member Party
Moorabbin   Liberal and Country Bob Suggett 9.4 N/A 8.7 Bob Suggett Independent Liberal  
Oakleigh   Labor Val Doube 1.8 -4.2 2.5 Alan Scanlan Liberal and Country  

See also

References

  1. ^ "Discharging members of the Legislative Council from attendance and dissolving the Legislative Assembly". Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 24 May 1961. p. 1961:1747.
  2. ^ "General Election". Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 24 May 1961. p. 1961:1748.
  3. ^ "Ministers of the Crown". Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 28 July 1961. p. 1961:2601.
  4. ^ "Fixing the time for holding the first session of the forty-second Parliament of Victoria". Victoria Government Gazette. Victorian Government Printer. 27 July 1961. p. 1961:2585.
  5. ^ Australian Government and Politics Database. "Parliament of Victoria, Assembly election, 15 July 1961". Retrieved 1 February 2010.
  6. ^ Carr, Adam. "Victoria Legislative Council Election 1961". Psephos Election Archive. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Victorian_state_election