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All 42 seats in theSouth Australian House of Assembly 22 seats were needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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State elections were held inSouth Australia on 2 April 1910. All 42 seats in theSouth Australian House of Assembly were up for election. The incumbentLiberal and Democratic Union (LDU) government led byPremier of South AustraliaArchibald Peake was defeated by theUnited Labor Party (ULP) led byJohn Verran. Each of the 13 districts elected multiple members, with voters casting multiple votes. The Peake LDUminority government had replaced thePrice ULP/LDU coalition government in June 1909. The 1910 election was the first to result in a South Australianmajority government. This came two weeks after the election of a first majority in either house in theParliament of Australia at the1910 federal election, also for Labor. Though a South Australian majority was won, the ULP did not take office until after the new lower house first met.
Following the election, the LDU merged with the twoindependentconservative parties – theAustralasian National League (ANL, formerly National Defence League (NDL)) and theFarmers and Producers Political Union (FPPU) – to become theLiberal Union (LU). The parties readily approved the merger, however, the LDU which salvaged the fewest of their principles from the merger were more hesitant. Peake persuaded a party conference that 'the day of the middle party is passed', and approved the merger by just one vote. The LU was affiliated with the federalCommonwealth Liberal Party (CLP).
The two-seatmulti-member district ofNorthern Territory was abolished in 1911, reducing the House of Assembly to 40 seats.
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| Party | Primary votes | % | Swing | Seats | +/- | ||
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| Liberal Union | 199,915 | 49.59 | +49.59 | 20 |  20 | ||
| United Labor | 197,935 | 49.10 | +14.28 | 22 | 2 | ||
| Independent | 5,309 | 1.32 | -15.13 | 0 |  1 | ||
| Formal votes | |||||||
| Informal votes | 1.6% | ||||||
| Total | 403,159 | 71.0% | 42 | ||||
The three anti-Labor parties - the LDU, the ANL and the FPPU - endorsed a shared "Liberal" slate of candidates in all but three Assembly seats and the Council, though they would not formally merge as theLiberal Union until late 1910, months after the election. The listed "Liberal" figure is for the three parties combined.
