1881 New Zealand general election

1881 general election

← 1879 8 (Māori) & 9 (general) December 1881 1884 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 95 seats in the House of Representatives
Turnout	66.5%
First party Second party   Leader John Hall George Grey Party Conservative Independents Greyite Independents Leader since 1879 1877 Leader's seat Selwyn Auckland East Seats won 45 39 Seat change 0 2 Popular vote N/A N/A Percentage N/A N/A Swing N/A N/A
Premier before election John Hall Independent Subsequent Premier John Hall Independent

The 1881 New Zealand general election was held on 8 and 9 December in the Māori and European electorates, respectively, to elect 95 MPs to the 8th session of the New Zealand Parliament.

1881 was the first time a general election was held under universal male suffrage; all MPs were elected in single-member electorates; and the country quota was introduced, allowing rural electorates to have 25% fewer voters than urban electorates. Beginning with the 1881 election, all elections in European electorates were to be held on the same day, a measure not introduced for Māori electorates until 1951.^[1]