| Election Name: | 1919 general election |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1914 New Zealand general election |
| Previous Year: | 1914 |
| Previous Mps: | 19th New Zealand Parliament |
| Next Election: | 1922 New Zealand general election |
| Next Year: | 1922 |
| Next Mps: | 21st New Zealand Parliament |
| Seats For Election: | All 80 seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives 41 seats were needed for a majority |
| Election Date: | 16 (Māori) & 17 December (general) 1919 |
| Elected Mps: | elected members |
| Turnout: | 80.5% |
| Leader1: | William Massey |
| Leader Since1: | 11 February 1909 |
| Party1: | Reform Party (New Zealand) |
| Leaders Seat1: | Franklin |
| Last Election1: | 40 seats, 47.1% |
| Seats Before1: | 39 |
| Seats1: | 45 |
| Seat Change1: | 6 |
| Popular Vote1: | 193,676 |
| Percentage1: | 35.7% |
| Swing1: | 11.4% |
| Leader2: | Joseph Ward |
| Leader Since2: | 11 September 1913 |
| Party2: | New Zealand Liberal Party |
| Leaders Seat2: | Awarua (lost seat) |
| Last Election2: | 34 seats, 43.1% |
| Seats Before2: | 34 |
| Seats2: | 19 |
| Seat Change2: | 15 |
| Popular Vote2: | 155,708 |
| Percentage2: | 28.7% |
| Swing2: | 14.4% |
| Leader3: | Harry Holland |
| Leader Since3: | 27 August 1919 |
| Party3: | New Zealand Labour Party |
| Leaders Seat3: | Grey |
| Last Election3: | 5 seats, 8.4% |
| Seats Before3: | 5 |
| Seats3: | 8 |
| Seat Change3: | 3 |
| Popular Vote3: | 131,402 |
| Percentage3: | 24.2% |
| Swing3: | 15.8% |
| Map Size: | 400px |
| Prime Minister | |
| Posttitle: | Subsequent Prime Minister |
| Before Election: | William Massey |
| After Election: | William Massey |
| Before Party: | Reform Party (New Zealand) |
| After Party: | Reform Party (New Zealand) |
The 1919 New Zealand general election was held on Tuesday, 16 December in the Māori electorates and on Wednesday, 17 December in the general electorates to elect a total of 80 MPs to the 20th session of the New Zealand Parliament. A total number of 560,673 (80.5%) voters turned out to vote.[1]
In 1919 women won the right to be elected to the House of Representatives. The law was changed late that year, and with only three weeks' notice, three women stood for Parliament.
They were Ellen Melville in Grey Lynn, Rosetta Baume in Parnell, and Aileen Cooke in Thames. Ellen Melville stood for the Reform Party and came second. She stood for Parliament several more times and generally polled well but never won a seat.
This is the most recent general election in which none of the major party leaders were born in New Zealand.
Though Labour Party captured only eight seats it received nearly a quarter of the votes – a shock to conservative minds due to Labour being founded only three years earlier in 1916.
| Election results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidates | Total votes | Percentage | Seats won | |
| Reform Party | 67 | 197,041 | 35.63 | 45 | |
| Liberal Party[2] | 66 | 166,675 | 30.14 | 19 | |
| Labour Party | 59 | 134,094 | 24.25 | 8 | |
| Independents[3] | 39 | 55,161 | 9.98 | 8 | |
| Total valid votes | 552,971 | 80 | |||
| Informal votes | 7,702 | 1.37 | |||
| Registered voters | 683,420 | ||||
The table below shows the results of the 1919 general election:
Key
|- |colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | General electorates|-|- |colspan=8 style="background-color:#FFDEAD" | Māori electorates|-|}
A boundary redistribution resulted in the abolition of four electorates:
At the same time, four new electorates were created: