1905 Sallian parliamentary election

1905 Sallian parliamentary election

27/06/1905
All 650 seats to the House of Commons of Sallia 326 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Registered	8,000,638
Turnout	7,845,107
First party Second party Third party   Leader James Cooper Arthur Chapman Hugh Banks Party Liberal Party Conservative Party Republican Party Leader since 4 August 1899 8 August 1902 4 August 1899 Leader's seat Palling Hammerbridge (defeated) Hampstead Seats before 183 407 48 Seats won 397 190 33 Seat change +214 -217 -15 Popular vote 3,690,338 2,759,909 679,386 Percentage 47.04% 35.18% 8.66%   Fourth party   Leader Oliver Anderson Party Labour Party Leader since 4 August 1899 Leader's seat Dielo Seats before 2 Seats won 24 Seat change +22 Popular vote 323,218 Percentage 4.12%
Prime Minister before election Arthur Chapman Conservative Party Prime Minister James Cooper Liberal Party

The 1905 Sallian parliamentary election took place on 27 June 1905. The 1st Parliament of Sallia had been dissolved on 2 June 1905 for a parliamentary election. There had been lots of discontent with the Conservative government led by Nicholas Wilson and then Arthur Chapman, and so the election resulted in a landslide victory for the Liberal Party led by James Cooper. Chapman actually lost his seat to the Liberal candidate, but did not resign as Leader of the Conservative Party, promising to fight a by-election when one came and win. The 2nd Parliament of Sallia first met on 14 July 1905.

Campaign

Campaigning began following the dissolution of the 1st Parliament of Sallia on 2 June 1905. 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 Party campaigned on social issues.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1905 Sallian parliamentary election

Endorsements

Newspaper	Endorsement
The People's Paper	Labour Party
The Daily News	Liberal Party
The Daily Post	Liberal Party

Results

Seats

• Liberal Party - 397 seats
• Conservative Party - 190 seats
• Republican Party - 33 seats
• Labour Party - 24 seats
• Independents and others - 5 seats
• The Speaker of the House - 1 seat

Popular vote

• Liberal Party - 3,690,338 (47.04%)
• Conservative Party - 2,759,909 (35.18%)
• Republican Party - 679,386 (8.66%)
• Labour Party - 323,218 (4.12%)
• Independents and others - 344,400 (4.39%)
• The Speaker of the House - 47,855 (0.61%)

The Liberal Party received the most votes ever cast for a single party in a parliamentary election up until that point by some 600,000 votes. Despite this, they won 10 seats less than the Conservatives had in the previous election.

Aftermath

The Liberals won a landslide victory of 397 seats (a majority of 144 seats). The incumbent Prime Minister Arthur Chapman (who had also lost his seat) immediately resigned, and the Leader of the Liberal Party James Cooper became the third Prime Minister of Sallia. On 8th February 1906, Conservative Leader Arthur Chapman re-entered Parliament at a by-election in the Conservative safe seat of the City of Swington. He continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition until the 1910 election.

Cooper dissolved Parliament on 2 June 1910 in compliance with the law for a parliamentary election on 27 June 1910.