There were to be no political parties in the new province. The designations "Government" and "Opposition" and "Independent" functioned in place of parties, but they were very loose and do not represent formal coalitions, more alignments of support during the campaign. "Government" meant in support of the current Premier; "Opposition" meant campaigning against him, and often enough the Opposition would win and immediately become the Government. The Elections British Columbia notes for this election describe the designations as "Government candidates supported the administration of G.A.B. Walkem. Those opposed ran as Reform, Opposition, Independent Reform, or Independent Opposition candidates. Those who ran as straight Independents were sometimes described as Government supporters.
Any changes due to byelections are shown below the main table showing the theoretical composition of the House after the election. A final table showing the composition of the House at the dissolution of the Legislature at the end of this Parliament can be found below the byelections. The main table represents the immediate results of the election only, not changes in governing coalitions or eventual changes due to byelections.
The original ridings had remained twelve in number, electing 25 members of the first provincial legislature from 12 ridings, some with multiple members. There were no political parties were not acceptable in the House by convention, though some members were openly partisan at the federal level. These ridings were:
Note that these figures refer to votes actually cast, not the population per se nor the total of the potential voters' list.
Polling conditions
Property requirements for voting instigated for the 1875 election were dropped. Natives and Chinese were disallowed from voting, although naturalized Kanakas and American and West Indian blacks and certain others participated. The requirement that knowledge of English be spoken for balloting was discussed but not applied.
Results by riding
Byelections
As customary, byelections were held to confirm the appointment of various members to the Executive Council. In this Parliament, all three such byelections were won by acclamation:
Walkem's byelection acclamation confirmed him as Premier; Executive Council appointments were decided and made by the Lieutenant-Governor in this period, not by the Premier directly, but by the L-G in Consultation with the Premier. The Premier's position itself was technically an appointment, as there were no political parties nor leaders, other than unofficial ones for each faction in the House to whom the Lieutenant-Governor would turn if their known caucus was sufficient to form a government. Other byelections were held on the occasion of death, ill health, retirement and/or resignation for other reasons. These were won by:
