abstract
| - The Bijani House of Representatives election of 1957 was held on Sunday, March 3, 1957, to elect the 150 members of the 3rd Bijani House of Representatives. The incumbent Bijani National Party government sought a third term in office against a coalescing, but still fractious and regionalized slate of opposition parties. Ten parties contested seats in the election, though only five of them contested seats in all 23 counties. Bijani election law requires that the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives to the counties be recalculated every eight years, or after every second ordinary election. Based on changing demographics since the 1949 apportionment, Estuary, Rockport, White Wolf, Milikaf and Silver counties each lost one seat, and Raban, Alar, Southport and Stolen Tree counties and Hadar City and County each gained one seat. The Bijani National Party won its third consecutive election with a narrow majority of 50.5% of the national vote, and 83 of the 150 seats, seven more than the 76 required to form a government without the support of other parties. The Social Democratic Party received approximately the same level of support as in the previous election, but the uneven nature of the constituency-based proportional system resulted in its losing six seats. With the exception of the New Bijan Party, all other parties experienced varying levels of increased support. Over 4.2 million Bijanis voted in the election, representing a voter turnout of 81.6%.
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