1978 Aquinox parliamentary election

Electoral system
All 412 seats in the Aquinox parliament were up for election using first past the post voting.

Previous election
The 1974 election had brought the traditional party of the left of Aquinox politics, the Social Democrats, to power with a modest majority of 17. SD leader Fredrick Hume became prime minister of the new government, and assembled the first and only Hume Ministry.

1974-1976
The government of Hume got off to an uneasy start with Union unrest and strikes among the postal and mining sectors beginning in the summer of 1975. The cabinet was seen as wracked and divided on the issue of reform to Arbitration laws and the introduction of some form of pay restraint. Rising prices outpacing wage increases was a sticking point in the governments side from mid 1975 onwards, with the media and opposition figures labeling 'Stagflation' as the most pressing issue going unaddressed by SD.

1977-1978
February of 1977 saw Gareth Hart, formally a junior minister in the Second Pikely Cabinet and professor in Economics, assume the leadership of the Conservatives and Protectionist party. His ascension was recognized in the media and wide public as a shift to the political centre for the party, with the faltering economic headwinds and murky outlook shaking a caucus worried of the effects of offering too radical of an alternative such as that proposed by the minority reformists in the party.