New Zealand general election, 1919

1919 General Election
Leader:	William Massey {{{title}}}	Joseph Ward {{{title}}}	Harry Holland {{{title}}}
Party:	Reform	Liberal	Labour
Leader Since:	1909	1913	1919
Leaders seat:	Franklin	Awarua	Grey
Last election:	50 seats	29 seats	5 seats (as ULP and Soc. Dem)
Seats Won:	45 seats	19 seats	8 seats
Popular Vote:	197,041	166,675	134,094

The New Zealand general election of 1919 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 Parliament of New Zealand. A total number of 560,673 (80.5%) voters turned out to vote.

In 1919 women won the right to be elected to the House of Representatives. The law was changed late in 1919, and with only three weeks notice, three women stood for Parliament in 1919.

They were Ellen Melville in Grey Lynn, Rosetta Baume in Parnell, and Mrs Aileen Cooke in Thames. Ellen Melville stood for the Reform Party and came second. She stood for Parliament several more times, but while generally polling well she never won a seat.

Party totals

The makeup of Parliament following the 1919 election.

Election results
Party		Candidates	Total votes	Percentage	Seats won
	Reform Party	61	197,041	35.63	45
	Liberal Party	59	166,675	30.14	19
	Labour Party	59	134,094	24.25	8
	Independents		55,161	9.98	8
Total valid votes			552,971		80
Informal votes			7,702	1.37
Registered voters			683,420