1900 Sallian parliamentary election
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All 650 seats to the House of Commons of Sallia 326 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Registered | 7,119,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 7,009,255 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1900 Sallian parliamentary election took place on 27 June 1900. The provisional government had been dissolved on 25 May 1900 following the ratification of the Conduct Act 1900. The upper-class Conservative Party, led by the rich Nicholas Wilson, ran a campaign promising to raise taxes for the poor to fund the aristocracy. The middle-class Liberal Party, led by James Cooper, promised equality between the classes and a liberal society. No one knew what to expect, due to the new circumstances. Opinion polls showed a Conservative victory, and it turned out to be a landslide when the results were announced on 7 July 2000. Nicholas Wilson then formed a new government, and the 1st Parliament of Sallia met on 1 August 1900.
Campaign
Campaigning began following the dissolution of the provisional government on 25 May 1900. It was a month-long gruelling campaign. The Conservatives campaigned mostly on economic issues, the Liberals campaigned on economic and social issues, the Republicans campaigned on changing the political system to a presidential one, and the Labour Representation Alliance campaigned on social issues.
Opinion polls
Main article: Opinion polling for the 1900 Sallian parliamentary election
Endorsements
| Newspaper | Endorsement |
|---|---|
| The People's Paper | Labour Representation Alliance |
| The Daily News | Conservative Party |
| The Daily Post | Liberal Party |
Results
The Conservative Party won a landslide victory of 407 seats (a majority of 164) over their main rivals, the Liberal Party, who only won 183 of the 650 House of Commons seats. The Republican Party, who campaigned mainly on changing the political system to one similar of the United States's system, won 48 seats. The Labour Representation Alliance won only 2 seats, but its leader Oliver Anderson (who won his seat) was very optimistic about the future. The Speaker of the Provisional Parliament, Adam Foster, won his seat under the ticket "The Speaker Candidate" (and eventually successfully ran to become Speaker of the House). 9 independent candidates won their seats.
Seats
- Conservative Party - 407 seats
- Liberal Party - 183 seats
- Republican Party - 48 seats
- Independents and others - 9 seats
- Labour Representation Alliance - 2 seats
- "The Speaker Candidate" - 1 seat
Popular vote
- Conservative Party - 3,091,782 (44.11%)
- Liberal Party - 2,306,045 (32.9%)
- Republican Party - 1,331,058 (18.99%)
- Independents and others - 114,251 (1.63%)
- Labour Representation Alliance - 140,185 (2.0%)
- "The Speaker Candidate" - 26,209 (0.37%)
Aftermath
As a result of the election, the Leader of the Conservative Party, Nicholas Wilson, formed a government and became the first Prime Minister. He hadn't run for Parliament, and soon found that it was ineffective to run a government without having a seat in Parliament. After losing a by-election on 8th August 1902, Wilson resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, and was replaced in both roles by the Parliamentary Leader of the Conservative Party, Arthur Chapman, who became the second Prime Minister of Sallia.
Chapman dissolved Parliament on 2 June 1905 in compliance with the law for a parliamentary election on 27 June 1905.