1909 Brighton state by-election

Not to be confused with 1928 Brighton state by-election.
1909 Brighton state by-election
← 1908 8 October 1909 1911 →
Electoral district of Brighton in the Victorian Legislative Assembly
  First party Second party Third party
 
IND
ALP
Candidate Oswald Snowball John Hamilton Daniel McNamara
Party Liberal Independent Liberal Labor
Popular vote 3,362 1,170 439
Percentage 60.3% 31.8 7.9
MP before election

Thomas Bent
Liberal

Elected MP

Oswald Snowball
Liberal

The 1909 Brighton state by-election was held on 8 October 1909 to elect the next member for Brighton in the Victorian Legislative Assembly, following the death of incumbent MP and former premier Thomas Bent.

Bent, who served as premier from February 1904 until January 1909, died on 17 September 1909 at his home in Bay Street, Brighton. He had been unopposed at the previous election in 1908.[1]

Prior to the election, the United Liberal Party (which Bent had led in 1908) had merged with the Liberal Party.[2] This led to the ULP splitting and the Liberal Party forming.[2]

The by-election was won by Liberal candidate Oswald Snowball. Other candidates were Independent Liberal John Hamilton and future Labor MLC Daniel McNamara.[3]

This was the first state election in Victoria in which women could vote.[3]

  1. ^ "Death of Sir Thomas Bent". The Argus. Trove, National Library of Australia. 18 September 1909.
  2. ^ a b "Parliament in Exile: Aspects of the Victorian Parliament at the Exhibition Building, 1901 to 1927" (PDF). Australasian Study of Parliament Group.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference 1908adamcarr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).