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British Columbia General Election, 1953The 24th general election for the Province of British Columbia, Canada was called on April 10, 1953, and held on June 9, 1953. The new legislature met for the first time on September 15, 1953. This was the second and last election to use the alternative voting system. Rather than marking the ballot with an X, numbers were to be placed opposite the names in order of choice. If, after the first count, no candidate received an absolute simple majority, the candidate with the least number of votes was dropped, and the second choices distributed among the remaining candidates. This process continued until a candidate emerged with the requisite majority vote. Some voters only indicated a first choice (plumping), and others did not utilize the full range available. Consequently as the counts progressed, some ballots would be exhausted and total valid votes would decline, thereby reducing the absolute majority required to be elected. In multi-member ridings, there were as many ballots as members to be elected, distinguished by colour and letters. The minority government formed in 1952 by the conservative Social Credit of Premier W.A.C. Bennett lasted only nine months before new elections were called. Social Credit was re-elected with a majority in the legislature to a second term in government with almost 38% of the popular vote. The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation formed the official opposition with the only significant opposition caucus (14 seats). The British Columbia Liberal Party lost two of its six seats despite and maintined its 20% share of the popular vote. The Progressive Conservative Party lost three of its four seat in the legislature, as its share of the popular cvote fell from almost 17% to under 6%. One seat was won by a Labour candidate. | owspan="2"|Party | rowspan="2"|Party Leader | rowspan="2"|# of candidates | colspan="3"|Seats | colspan="5"|Popular Vote | | lign="center"|Previous | align="center"|After | align="center"|% Change | align="center"|First count | align="center"|% | align="center"|Change | align="center"|Final count | align="center"|% | | Social Credit | W.A.C. Bennett | align="right"|48 | align="right"|0 | align="right"|28 | align="right"| - | align="right"|274,771 | align="right"| 37.75% | align="right"| +10.55% | align="right"|300,372 | align="right"|45.54% | | a href="/encyclopedia/New-Democratic-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="New Democratic Party of British Columbia">Co-operative Commonwealth | |align="right"|47 |align="right"|18 |align="right"|14 |align="right"| -22.2% |align="right"|224,513 |align="right"| 30.85% |align="right"| +0.07% |align="right"|194,414 |align="right"|29.48% | | a href="/encyclopedia/British-Columbia-Liberal-Party" title="British Columbia Liberal Party">Liberal | |align="right"|48 |align="right"|6 |align="right"|4 |align="right"| -33.3% |align="right"|171,671 |align="right"| 23.59% |align="right"| +0.13% |align="right"|154,090 |align="right"|23.36% | | a href="/encyclopedia/British-Columbia-Conservative-Party" title="British Columbia Conservative Party">Progressive Conservative | |align="right"|39 |align="right"|4 |align="right"|1 |align="right"| -75.0% |align="right"|40,780 |align="right"| 5.60% |align="right"| -11.24% |align="right"|7,326 |align="right"|1.11% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Labour-Parties-of-British-Columbia" title="Labour Parties of British Columbia">Labour | Tom Uphill | align="right"|1 | align="right"|1 | align="right"|1 | align="right"| - | align="right"|1,601 | align="right"| 0.22% | align="right"| +0.06% | align="right"|1,793 | align="right"|0.27% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Communist-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Communist Party of British Columbia">Labour Progressive | align="center"| | align="right"|25 | align="right"|0 | align="right"|0 | align="right"| - | align="right"|7,496 | align="right"| 1.03% | align="right"| +0.70% | align="right"|816 | align="right"|0.12% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Christian-Democratic-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="Christian Democratic Party of British Columbia">Christian Democratic | align="center"| | align="right"|14 | align="right"|0 | align="right"|0 | align="right"| - | align="right"|5,036 | align="right"| 0.69% | align="right"| -0.24% | align="right"|752 | align="right"|0.12% | | ndependent | align="center"| | align="right"|6 | align="right"|0 | align="right"|0 | align="right"| - | align="right"|1,951 | align="right"| 0.27% | align="right"| 0.10% | align="right"| - | align="right"| - | | a href="/encyclopedia/People's-Party-of-British-Columbia" title="People's Party of British Columbia">People's | align="center"| | align="right"|1 | align="right"|n.a. | align="right"|0 | align="right"| n.a. | align="right"|20 | align="right"| x | align="right"|n.a. | align="right"| - | align="right"| - | | otal | align="center"| | 229 | 48 | 48 | - | 727,839 | 100% | - | 659,563 | 100 | | align="center" colspan="11"|Sources: Elections BC | Note: n.a. - not applicable: party not recognized at the previous election x - less than 0.005% of the popular vote
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