52 elections found. Click on Election Date to see details.
The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the bicameral Western Australian Parliament and has been a directly elected chamber since 1894. Members of the Legislative Council have had fixed terms (six years from 1894 to 1989, four years since 1989) but have been elected under three different electoral regimes:
1894-1962: Members were elected from three member electoral districts (provinces) with staggered fixed six year terms, so that one member from each province (a third of the members) retired every two years at biennial periodic elections, usually held in May. Legislative Council elections were not held at the same time as general elections for the Western Australian lower house, the Legislative Assembly.
1965-1986: Members were elected from two member electoral districts (provinces) with staggered fixed six year terms, so that one of the two members from each province (half the members) retired every three years at triennial periodic elections. These elections were held at the same time as general elections for the lower house, the Legislative Assembly.
From 1989: Members have been elected with fixed four year terms from multimember electoral districts (regions) by a system of proportional representation using the single transferable vote method with a provision for ticket voting. Staggered elections were abolished and all members are now elected at the same election. Legislative Council elections have been held with general elections for the lower house, the Legislative Assembly, usually on a date in the period December to February preceding the May expiry date of Legislative Council terms.
See the Glossary of this website and the notes for each Legislative Council election for more details.
We wish to acknowledge the extensive assistance of David Black, Chair of the Parliamentary History Advisory Committee of Western Australia, and the Library of the Parliament of Western Australia.