Western Australian state election, 1943

← 1939

20 November 1943

1947 →

All 50 seats in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
26 Assembly seats were needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	John Willcock	Arthur Watts
Party	Labor	Country/Nationalist coalition
Leader since	20 August 1936	8 October 1942
Leader's seat	Geraldton	Katanning
Last election	27 seats	19 seats
Seats won	30 seats	17 seats
Seat change	3	2
Percentage	43.28%	36.70%
Swing	4.00? (see Results)	0.72

Premier before election

John Willcock
Labor

Elected Premier

John Willcock
Labor

Elections were held in the state of Western Australia on 20 November 1943 to elect all 50 members to the Legislative Assembly. The Labor Party, led by Premier John Willcock, won a fourth term in office against the Country and Nationalist parties, led by Opposition Leader Arthur Watts and Robert Ross McDonald respectively.

The election took place in the midst of World War II, and as such, turnout was considerably down on the previous election. The election was delayed from its intended date of February 1942 by the Legislative Assembly Duration and General Election Postponement Acts (No 51 of 1941, assented 16 January 1942, and No 18 of 1942, assented 9 December 1942) due to the war.

In the previous term, two changes of membership occurred at by-elections. George Lambert, the Labor member for Yilgarn-Coolgardie, died on 30 June 1941 and was replaced by former Labor branch secretary Lionel Kelly, running under the "Independent Country" banner. He ultimately joined the Labor Party and became a minister in the Bert Hawke government in the 1950s. In 1943, long-serving and colourful independent Thomas Hughes resigned his seat of East Perth to contest the federal seat of Perth. It was picked up by Labor's Herb Graham. Prior to the election, former Independent Nationalist Arthur Abbott joined the Nationalist Party.

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