Roland by-election, 2057

A by-election was held for the Craftian House of Representatives seat of Roland on Saturday 15 December 2057. It was triggered by the resignation of sitting member Humphrey Cunningham of the Craftian Conservative Party, following an expenses scandal regarding use of taxpayer money to fund his children's overseas holidays as well as several business investments.

The by-election was won by Lewis Terrys of the National United Party (and future Prime Minister of Craftia), on a two-party-preferred swing of 15.70% against the Conservative government. This is one of the largest by-election swings in Craftian history to result in a gain for an opposition party.

Terrys would later be defeated in 2061 by Nathan Yang, who sat as a member of the Liberal Party of Craftia and contested this by-election as an independent, before winning the seat again in 2064. Terrys then went on to serve as Prime Minister from 2067 to 2074.

A total of 8 candidates nominated to contest the by-election, including 3 independents.

Seat overview
Roland, an outer metropolitan electorate on the outskirts of Richmond, Western Craftia, was historically fairly safe for the United Party, but successive redistributions had moved it further away from the city and added several semi-rural population centres into the south-west of the seat, boosting the Conservative margin. This was coupled with the overall unpopularity of the NUP and Liberals during the early 2050s to enable the Conservatives to claim the seat for the first time in its history, in the 2052 federal election. It was narrowly retained during the 2055 landslide on a TPP margin of 0.27%, making it the most marginal seat in the country.

With the incumbent Queanbeyan Government faltering, the United Party spent a heavy amount on claiming the highly marginal seat that was once undoubtedly left-leaning territory.