161 elections found. Click on Election Date to see details.
The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Tasmanian parliament and has been a directly elected chamber since 1856. It has some distinctive features:
Terms of members: Members have staggered fixed six year terms with some members retiring every year at annual periodic elections, usually held in May. The Legislative Council cannot be dissolved - there are no general elections for the Legislative Council.
Franchise and voting: Universal franchise for Legislative Council elections was not introduced until 1968. Preferential voting (the alternative vote) with semi-optional preferences has been in use for the Legislative Council since 1909 with rotation of candidates' names on the ballot paper (Robson rotation) since 1979.
Independent members: Even though political parties have played a dominant role in other Tasmanian elections since the early 1900s, most candidates for Legislative Council elections have not had any stated party affiliation. These candidates are labelled as Independents in this database.
A number of changes have been made in the display of election results for the Tasmanian Legislative Council:
Annual summaries: The election results for annual periodic elections, together with any by-elections held in that year, are presented in a summary table for each election year. Extended notes: The summary table for each election year has notes giving the institutional context of the election.
Electoral district results: The absence of political parties from most electoral contests and the small number of seats in the Legislative Council prompted the compilers of this database to include individual electoral district results and the names of candidates for each election. Electoral district results are listed in tables below the notes for the annual summary.
Please select a Tasmanian district for more detail
All | Apsley |Buckingham |Cambridge |Cornwall |Derwent |Elwick |Gordon |Hobart |Huon |Jordan |Launceston |Leven |Longford |Macquarie |Meander |Mersey |Monmouth |Montgomery |Murchison |Nelson |Newdegate |North Esk |Paterson |Pembroke |Prosser |Queenborough |Rosevears |Rowallan |Rumney |Russell |South Esk |Tamar |Wellington |West Devon |Western Tiers |Westmorland |Windermere |A series of tables is available for download to show the sequence of elections for the Legislative Council from 1856 to 2008: PDF format (370KB) ; MS Excel format (106KB).
We wish to acknowledge the extensive assistance of the Research Service of the Parliament of Tasmania.