This poster-sized calendar shows the Liberal Party members of Parliament in 1910, as well as the electorates (constituencies) that they represented. The MPs had been elected to the House of Representatives using the two-round or second-ballot system, in which a winning candidate had to gain an absolute majority (more than 50%) of the votes cast. If no candidate achieved this in the initial election, a second election was held a week or two later between the two highest-polling candidates. Joseph Ward, the prime minister and Liberal Party leader (pictured in the top middle of this poster), introduced the system in the hope of bolstering major party candidates. The system was used for only two general elections – 1908 and 1911 – after which New Zealand reverted to the first-past-the-post system for parliamentary elections.
Using this item
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.