Tasmanian state election, 1909

Tasmanian state election, 1909

← 1906 30 April 1909 1912 →
All 30 seats to the House of Assembly
First party Second party Third party   Leader John Evans John Earle Party Anti-Socialist Labour Liberal Democrat Leader since 12 July 1904 1906 Leader's seat Franklin Franklin Last election 22 seats 7 seats 6 seats Seats won 17 seats 12 seats 1 seat Seat change 5 5 5 Percentage 50.61% 38.94% 9.70% Swing 8.81 18.82 4.38
Premier before election John Evans Ministerialist Resulting Premier John Evans Anti-Socialist

John Evans
Ministerialist

John Evans
Anti-Socialist

The 1909 Tasmanian state election was held on Friday, 30 April 1909 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. At the 1909 election there was a reduction in the number of members from 35 to 30 and the first statewide use of the Hare-Clark proportional representation system — six members were elected from each of five electorates. The election saw an increase in Labour seats from 7 to 12, at the expense of the Anti-Socialist Party.

The Tasmanian House of Assembly had, from its inception in 1856, used a plurality voting system to elect members from one or two-seat electorates. In 1896, the Tasmanian attorney-general, Andrew Inglis Clark, suggested the House adopt a single transferable vote system devised by Englishman Thomas Hare with certain variations devised by himself, which became known as the Hare-Clark system. The system was used on a trial basis in the Hobart and Launceston electorates from the 1897 election onwards, but was never used in the country electorates and was repealed in 1901, with the districts being broken up at the 1903 election. In order to blunt the emergence of the Australian Labour Party which won eight seats in the 1906 election, Clark convinced the House to apply the Hare-Clark system statewide.

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