The new Saskatchewan Party took more votes than any other party but the NDP took more seats, taking half the seats in the Saskatchewan Legislature. The NDP formed a coalition with three Liberal Party MLAs to hold majority government.
The Saskatchewan Party took 40 percent of the votes but only 25 seats.
The NDP took 39 percent of the votes but 29 seats.
The Liberal Party with 20 percent of the vote took five seats.
No other parties received any seats
As is normal, the two most popular parties took far more than than their due share of the seats while the smaller parties received far short of their due.
Following this election, the province descended into a two-party straitjacket, where only candidates of the NDP or the Saskatchewan Party have been elected.
And where most voters cast their votes strategically for just one of those to main contenders.
In 2003, 60,000 voters (14 percent) cast their vote for Liberal candidates.
This was down 20,000 compared to 1999.
The Conservative candidates received just a relative handful of votes, less than 2 percent of the votes, in 1999 and 2003.
Although a two-party straitjacket forces voters to vote strategically not for their first choice, it is also a sign of a hyper-competitive situation. In 2003 the turnout increased compared to 1999.
That tells us that even as voters found themselves trapped into voting for their preferred choice of the two contenders (in some cases, not for their actual preference), they thought voting was even more important.
However, turnout eventually dropped as voter dissatisfaction grew. And the COVID pandemic might have stifled the turnout in the 2020 election.
Election records show that in no election did the vote tally of a party exceed half of eligible voters. Thus that no party had the support of an absolute majority of the voters.
Turnout
1999 66 percent turnout (as percent of eligible voters)
730,000 eligible voters
absolute majority of eligible voters: 365,000
votes cast: 405,000
NDP took 39 percent of the vote (157,000 votes)
Sask Party took 40 percent of the vote (161,000 votes)
Liberal Party took 20 percent of the votes (82,000 votes)
2003 71 percent turnout Sask Party took 51 percent of the vote (191,000 votes)
2007 76 percent turnout Sask Party took 51 percent of the vote
2011 67 percent turnout Sask Party took 67 percent of the vote
2016 58 percent turnout 812,000 eligible voters
absolute majority of eligible voters: 406,000
433,000 votes cast
Sask Party took 63 percent of the vote (271,000 votes)
2020 53 percent turnout 842,000 eligible voters
(as per wikipedia 2020 election
absolute majority of eligible voters: : 421,000
votes cast: 445,000 votes
Sask Party took 61 percent of the vote (270,000 votes)
Saskatchewan needs PR to allow all voters the liberty to vote for whom they truly want. Now only those who favour one of the two main parties have that liberty if they want to have a chance at having some impact on the situation.
Thanks for reading.
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