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CONSTITUENCY CHANGES.
LONDON, Feb. 22 (AJU>.).-r
The Australian Associated Press
representative says that import-
ant factors to be considered in an
attempt to predict- the possible
outcome of the elections are the
differences between this contest
and the last, notably the redistri-
bution of constituencies which
has been made to bring about
greater equalisation of elector-
ates.
Big areas and big blocks of
voters have been transferred from
one constituency to another. The
electoral map of the country, as
"The Times' " Parliamentary
writer points out, has been re-
drawn, and in hundreds of con-
stituencies it is quite impossible
to base 'any estimate of the re-
sult on - past performances, so
greatly have the electorates been
changed. '
SMALLER SEBVICE VOTE
Another factor -is the much
smaller service vote. At the 1945
election, there were over 2,895,
000 on the service , register, of
which 1,700,000 voted. This time,
although there are 700.000 men
and women in the forces, a high
proportion are under 21 and the
total number on the service reg-
ister is just over 139,000. It al-
ways has been believed that the
service vote in 1945 was cast
heavily in favour of the Labour
Party.
One outstanding feature of the
election campaign has been the
anxiety expressed about the pos-
sibility of such a close finish be-
tween the major parties as to
bring about something like a
Parliamentary stalemate.
Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr.
Herbert Morrison (Labour) have
both referred to the unfortunate
consequences of any such de-
cision. If this did happen, there
would soon have to be another
general election. Most of the
concern shown about this possi-
bility derives. from the Liberal
Party's large-scale intervention
in this election and from results
of public opinion polls.
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