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All 27 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island 14 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 plurality results by each riding. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1996 Prince Edward Island general election was held on November 18, 1996.[1] It was the first election in the province's history to not use multi-member constituencies, and instead elect a single member in each of 27 districts. (Previously, since 1873 the province had been divided into 15 or 16 districts, each electing two members.)
The governing Liberals of Premier Keith Milligan, who had been in power since Joe Ghiz first won government in 1986, lost to the resurgent Progressive Conservatives under their new leader, Pat Binns.
This was also the first election where a party other than the Liberals or Tories won a seat in the Legislature, with New Democratic Party leader Herb Dickieson winning a three-way race in a Prince County riding.
This election was the only one in PEI history where a party formed government without winning a majority of the vote until the 2015 election.
- ^ "Provincial General Election Results, 1996" (PDF). Elections PEI. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 23, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.