FEDERAL ELECTION

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 143, 15 December 1919, Page 5

FEDERAL ELECTION

NATIONALISTS LEADING

THE LATEST RETURNS

THREE MINISTERS MAY LOSE

THEO!, SEATS.

(L'NIIED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) SYDNEY, 13th December. ■ Polling is proceeding quietly. Owing to the delay caused by' the preferential voting system, the incomplete figures preclude a reliable forecast regarding the strength of parties. Both sides express satisfaction with the present results, but there seems every possibility that the Nationalists will secure a working majority in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that an attempted analysis shows that Labour will have thirty-eight seats, the Nationalists thirty-one, and the Farmers' Party six. Mr. Hughes, Mr. Ryan, Mr. Tudor, and Sir Joseph Cook appear to be safe.' Senator Russell (Vice-President of the Executive Council), Mr. Webster (Post-master-General), and Mr. Poynton (Honorary Minister) may tose their seats. SYDNEY' 14th December Although the exact figures were not available at a late hour to-night, the latest returns indicate that the position of the parties is about equal. It is impossible to forecast the result of the referendum. The State figures so far are : — LEGISLATIVE POWERS. Yes 51,555 No ; 74,336 MONOPOLIES. Yes „ 45,027 ■ No , 69,127 (Received December 15, 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The latest returns give the state of parties as follow : — y Nationalist 32 Labour , 313 Farmers 4 The doubtful seats are;— Nationalist. 7; Labour, 2; Farmers, 4. The referendum figures are; — LEGISLATIVE POWERS. Yes - „ 187,573 No 216,897 I MONOPOLIES. Yes 167,692 No 203,108 (Received December 15, 1 p.m.)

SYDNEY, This Day Excepting whore there are straight-out fights for the House of Representatives, all the figures are still so incomplete that sweeping changes ' are possible. As far as the Senate and referendum votes are concerned, the present totals are a mei'9 modicum, and give no reliable indication. It will be days before the results really settle to anything like finality, and a couple of weeks more before they are complete.

Of the eighteen Senate seats to be filled, ten Nationalists and eight Labourites lit; present hold the leading positions, but in'several cases others on the list are woll within striking distance. Mr, Byan romped in in West Sydney, with a thumping majority, and Mr. Hughes's lead in Bendigb'apparently puts the issue quite beyond doubt. Mr. Bussell, the only Minister who holds a Senatorial seat, appears iii a bad way, but three other Ministers, Mi\ Webster, Mr. Glynn, and Mr. Poynton, have fair .fighting; chances, and may. recover oil a later vote.

On the whole, the new system of voting worked apparently without serious difficulty as far as the Houbb is concerned, but for the Senate, with a longer list of candidates to deal with, it was more difficult, and there are probably a good many. spoiled votes. Later. Taking the bulk of the returns as they stand, whatever the later returns may disclose, they certainly to a considerable extent modify the Nationalists' lea-ders' predictions that there have been and will be surprises, but the Labourites consider on the whole that their expectations have been largely justified. f With few exceptions, polling everywhere passed off quietly. Mr. Laird Smith, Nationalist candidate for Denison, Tasmania, was roughly handled the night before the poll, and at Bendigo a prominent Nationalist supporter had to take refuge from the crowd. Under the new voting system a goodly number of inter-State visitors were disfranchised, owing to the erroneoun belief that they could Vote as absentees. This is not so.

[At the Federal election in May, 1917, Mr. Hughes practically swept the polls. His party obtained a majority of nearly five to two' in the House of Representatives, and won the whola^ of the 18 seats for the Senate. The Labour Party, to obtain a majority of one in the House of Representatives, must improve its position by 15 seats. In the Senate, before the split in the Labour Party in 1916, the position of parties was : Labour 31, Liberal 5. At the time of the dissolution, in 1917., the figures Were: Nationalists 18, Labour 18, and after the elections in 1917 the parties were : Nationalists 25, Labour 11. Similarly, for the House the figures were : 1916, Labour 40, Liberals 35. Dissolution 1917, Nationalists 49, Labour 26. Elections 1917, Nationalists 53, Labour 22. The Bill to amend tho Constitution, upon which a referendum is being taken, empowers tho Commonwealth to deal'with corporations both within the Commonwealth and in foreign countries with respect to all industrial matters and disputes, and the control of trusts, combines, and monopolies. The Act is to remain in force for three years, or until a Commonwealth Convention recasts the constitution with the approval of the people. If the. Convention is not held, the Act will cease to operate in December» 1920.]