Rainian House of Councillors election, 1888

The 5th Rainian House of Councillors election was held from the 14th March - 27th March, 1888 to elect all 89 members of the House of Councillors.

The British Imperial government of Fydd Rochester which had been elected to a landslide majority in the 1882 election had a mixed term in government. The New Economic Policy - a series of tariffs - had endeared the British Imperials to business leaders and nationalists who believed that free trade with Sierra would lead to Rainier's annexation into Sierra. Various social reforms such as the Factory Act 1884 which banned child labour under the ideology of had increased support for the British Imperial party amongst the working class.

However the construction of the Pacific Railway (a pet project of the government) and numerous other large scale infrastructure projects designed to modernise Rainier had led to the government to import labourers from which produced a backlash from. These nativists created the Anti-Chinese Party formed on the sole purpose of banning all Chinese immigration and all Chinese back to China to maintain a white Rainier.

Prior to the election the Union party had appointed a new parliamentary leader, Stuart Mackenzie who at the first party convention in 1886 had presented a set of principles the Union party would abide to, including an unambiguous commitment to free trade. This led to a split between the anti-free trade and pro-free trade factions with 11 Union MP's crossing the floor joining the British Imperial government.

The election saw the British Imperials lose much of its popular vote to the Anti-Chinese party although it still formed a convincing majority government. The Union party increased some of its seats but did not improve on its score from 1882. The Anti-Chinese Party got 11 seats.