The election was triggered due to the resignation of sitting Member Kennedy Macdonald amidst a bankruptcy claim.[1] The contest was won by William McLean of the Liberal Party. McLean narrowly beat the conservative Francis Bell by 3,388 votes to 3,245.[2]
The election was marred by a scandal over double voting. Over twenty cases of people casting votes more than once were discovered in a subsequent investigation.[3] In his congratulatory speech to McLean, Prime Minister John Ballance also made reference to the scandal, alleging that the Tory Party had brought in outsiders to vote who had long ceased to be residents in the electorate.[4]
McLean held the seat until the 1893 general election, when he was defeated.[6] Bell won a seat in Parliament for the Wellington electorate in 1893 and would go on to become Prime Minister more than three decades later.[7] Macdonald was cleared of his bankruptcy charges but was not re-elected in 1893. He was later appointed to the Legislative Council in 1903.[8]
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