 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
All 36 seats in theSouth Australian House of Assembly All 18 seats in theSouth Australian Legislative Council | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
The1857 South Australian colonial election was held on 9 March 1857 to elect members to the1st Parliament of South Australia. All 36 seats in theHouse of Assembly (the lower house), and all 18 seats in theLegislative Council (the upper house) were up for re-election. Prior to the election,Boyle Travers Finniss led a government which was formed to administer the election and to establish the firstresponsible government.
The election used non-compulsoryplurality block voting, in which electors deleted the names of candidates they did not support. Members of the House of Assembly were elected to 17 multi-member districts; most districts had two members, with the exception ofCity of Adelaide (6 members),The Burra and Clare (3),Flinders (1),The Murray (1), andVictoria (1). Members of the Legislative Council were elected in a single 18-member district.Suffrage extended to men (includingAboriginals) over 21 years of age (who owned property worth at least ₤50, for the Legislative Council), unless they were "attainted or convicted of treason or felony".
No parties or solid groupings would be formed until after the1890 election, which resulted in frequent changes of thePremier. If the incumbent Premier lost sufficient support through a successfulmotion of no confidence at any time, he would tender his resignation to theGovernor, which would result in another member being elected and sworn in by the Governor as the next Premier.
