2018 New Brunswick general election
The 2018 New Brunswick general election was held on September 24, 2018, to elect the 49 members of the 59th New Brunswick Legislature, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.
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49 seats in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 25 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 67.34% (2.69pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Two smaller parties — the People's Alliance and the Greens — made breakthroughs, winning three seats each, and potentially holding the balance of power. The People's Alliance entered the legislature for the first time, while the Greens increased their seat count from one. This marked the first time since the 1991 election that four parties won representation in the legislature. The election was also contested by the provincial New Democrats, newcomers KISS NB, and eight independents.
This is the first election since 1920 that did not return a majority for any party. The Progressive Conservatives won the most seats, with 22, but incumbent Liberal Premier Brian Gallant, whose party secured only 21 seats despite winning the popular vote by six percentage points, indicated that he would seek the confidence of the legislature and attempt to form a minority government.
On September 25, Gallant met with the Lieutenant Governor Jocelyne Roy-Vienneau and received permission to continue in office. On November 2, Gallant's minority government was defeated in a non-confidence vote. On November 9, Progressive Conservative leader Blaine Higgs was sworn in as premier with a minority government.