The 1945 Dunedin North by-election was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held during the 27th New Zealand Parliament in the

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

electorate of

Dunedin North Dunedin North, also known as North Dunedin, is a major inner suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, located northeast of the city centre. It contains many of the city's major institutions, including the city's university, polytechnic, ma ...

. The by-election occurred following the death of MP Jim Munro (politician), James W. Munro and was won by Robert Walls (politician), Robert Walls.

Background

Munro, who was first elected to represent Dunedin North for the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party in , died on 27 May 1945. This triggered the Dunedin North by-election, which was contested by Robert Walls for Labour, and Norman Jones for New Zealand National Party, National. Walls obtained 53.1% of the votes and was successful. Walls represented Dunedin North until his death in 1953, and the Labour Party would go on to hold the electorate until 1975. There was talk of John A. Lee standing as a Democratic Labour Party (New Zealand), Democratic Labour (DLP) candidate as soon as the seat fell vacant, though no nomination either on his behalf or another DLP candidate was received before nominations closed. It was the first time that Jones contested an election; he contested six more elections unsuccessfully before he was finally successful in the electorate 1975 New Zealand general election, 30 years later. The by-election was held soon after the 1945 Hamilton by-election, when National had campaigned on withdrawing New Zealand troops from Italy and restricting New Zealand's role in the Pacific War to food supply, though Labour wanted to keep New Zealand troops in the Pacific to "have a say" in the peace. But Peter Fraser wanted to contribute to a Commonwealth force against Japan. He met the Opposition leaders Sidney Holland and Adam Hamilton; noting the divisions in his own caucus. Holland agreed with Fraser not to refer to the matter (which was agitating the whole country) during the campaign. The government held the seat, and in a (non-broadcast) semi-secret session of the House on 2 August agreed to participate in a force against Japan "within the capacity of our remaining resources of manpower". And National's proposal to reduce the total armed forces to 55,000 was accepted.

Previous election

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Notes

References

* * Politics of Dunedin 1945 elections in New Zealand By-elections in New Zealand, Dunedin 1940s in Dunedin July 1945 events in New Zealand {{NewZealand-election-stub

Background

Previous election

Results

See also

Notes

References