32nd New Zealand Parliament

The 1957 general election was held on Saturday, 30 November.^[1] A total of 80 MPs were elected; 51 represented North Island electorates, 25 represented South Island electorates, and the remaining four represented Māori electorates; this was a gain of one electorate for the North Island from the South Island since the 1954 election.^[2] 1,252,329 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 92.9%.^[1]

The 32nd Parliament sat for four sessions (there were two sessions in 1958), and was prorogued on 28 October 1960.^[3]

The National Party under Sidney Holland had been in power since the 1949 election as the first National Government, and Holland remained in charge until he stepped down due to ill health in September 1957 some two months prior to the 1957 election. Holland was succeeded by Keith Holyoake, but the Labour Party narrowly defeated National at the 1957 election, and the government changed in mid-December of that year. Walter Nash formed the Nash Ministry, which was in power from 12 December 1957 until the defeat of the second Labour Government at the next election in 1960.^[4]

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1957 election and at dissolution:

Notes

• The Working Government majority is calculated as all Government MPs less all other parties.

The table below shows the results of the 1957 general election:

Key

  Labour   National

Table footnotes:

There was one by-election during the term of the 32nd Parliament.