1907 Victorian state election

1907 Victorian state election
All 65 seats in the Victorian Legislative Assembly; 33 seats needed for a majority
Premier before election; Thomas Bent; United Liberal	Elected Premier ; Thomas Bent; United Liberal

The 1907 Victorian state election was held in the Australian state of Victoria on Friday, 15 March 1907 to elect 45 of the 65 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.^[1] The other 20 seats were uncontested.

The election was in one 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.^{[citation needed]}

The National Citizens' Reform League, led by Thomas Bent, had disbanded shortly after the 1904 state election, leading to the majority of Liberals and Conservatives sitting separately again.^[2]^[3]

Bent formed the United Liberal Party in February 1907.^[2] Without Liberal Ministerialists and Liberal Oppositionists competing against each other, three-sided contests were largely eliminated, causing Labor to lose the seats of Ballarat and Geelong.^[4]

Results

Legislative Assembly (FPTP)^[1]^[4]
Party		Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	United Liberal	59,785	51.36	+51.36	49	49
	Labor	40,044	34.40	+1.85	14	3
	Independent Ministerialists	11,029	9.47	+4.55	1	1
	Independent Labor	2,795	2.40	+1.03	1	1
	Independent	2,754	2.37	+1.75	0
Formal votes		116,407	99.41
Informal votes			0.59
Total					65
Registered voters / turnout		261,080	61.27	−9.70