United Party (New Zealand)

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The United Party in New Zealand , founded in 1927 as the successor to the Liberal Party , formed a government under Joseph Ward , who was Prime Minister of New Zealand for the Liberal Party from 1906 to 1912 , after a surprising election success in the parliamentary elections in 1928 .

history

After the demoralizing development in the Liberal Party since the beginning of the 1920s, the party split in 1925 into the National under George William Forbes and into a group called the Liberal Labor , which was the basin of the Liberals under William Andrew Veitch . In the parliamentary elections of 1925, both groups together received only 11 seats. Attempts failed the Liberal Party to reactivate until in November 1927, the National with the participation of United New Zealand Political Organization concerned that a few months earlier by Albert Ernest Davy , a businessman and political organizer who previously for the Reform Party was formed had worked . At a unification conference in Auckland in September 1928, the United Party pooled all its strengths for the election on December 10th and had a stalemate with 29.8% and 27 seats with the Reform Party , which received more percent, but only on 27 seats came. Ultimately, it was decided by a few Labor supporters and independent members of the House, with whose support Joseph Ward was finally elected Prime Minister.

The success that the United Party was able to record at this time was not only due to its closed appearance, it was also due to the fact that the public had had enough of the Reform Party under Gordon Coates and especially the businessmen in the cities were interfering in did not like the economy at all in the interests of the farmers and their support for Coates failed.

When Joseph Ward resigned from all offices on May 28, 1930 because of his threatening health, Forbes took over the leadership of the party and with it the office of Prime Minister. This drew a shift to the right in the party. But not strong enough against the increasingly strong Labor Party , Forbes entered into a coalition with the Reform Party for the parliamentary election in 1931 and was able to provide government for three years with an outstanding result of 55.4% and 51 seats.

But in 1936 the alliance, which also appeared as a national alliance, could no longer exist against Labor , which won an absolute majority with 46.1% and 53 seats and with the support of the Ratana movement , the first two seats for the Māori in the House of Representatives elected Michael Joseph Savage as the new Prime Minister.

In the years of the coalition, the United Party and the Reform Party had come closer in terms of content and so, after Labor had won, it was only the logical consequence to unite and develop a new strong force against Labor . In addition, the Reform Party was more rooted in rural areas and the United Party, with its liberal past, dominated more in the cities. The merger of the two parties was finally decided at a congress that took place in Wellington from May 13-14, 1936 , and the new party, the National Party, was founded. The Liberal Movement had come to an end in New Zealand politics.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c News & Media - The Chief Electoral Officer has declared the official results for the 2008 General Election . Elections Electoral Commission , November 22, 2008, accessed December 30, 2015 .
  2. ^ NZ Politics: 1918-1939 . Christchurch City Libraries , accessed May 29, 2016 .
  3. ^ History of the National Party . New Zealand National Party , archived from the original on April 16, 2014 ; accessed on May 29, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).