31st New Zealand Parliament


The 31st New Zealand Parliament was a term of the New Zealand Parliament. It was elected at the 1954 general election on 13 November of that year.

1954 general election

The 1954 general election was held on Saturday, 13 November. A total of 80 MPs were elected; 50 represented North Island electorates, 26 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. 1,209,670 voters were enrolled and the official turnout at the election was 91.4%.

Sessions

The 31st Parliament sat for three sessions, and was prorogued on 25 October 1957.
SessionOpenedAdjouned
first22 March 195528 October 1955
second4 April 195626 October 1956
third11 June 195725 October 1957

Ministries

The National Party under Sidney Holland had been in power since the, and Holland remained in charge until 1957, when he stepped down due to ill health in September 1957 some two months prior to the. 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.

Overview of seats

The table below shows the number of MPs in each party following the 1954 election and at dissolution:
Notes
;Table footnotes:

By-elections during 31st Parliament

There were a number of changes during the term of the 31st Parliament.