Five general elections would occur between 1888 and 1905, as the territories underwent significant growth. In 1897 after an amendment to the Northwest Territories Act, the territories experienced a short-lived period of partisan politics that led to the Northwest Territories Liberal-Conservative Party being elected in the fourth and fifth elections until 1905. The government in this period was made of members from the populated regions in the south. No members from the Arctic region would sit in government until 1947. In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan were carved out of the Northwest Territories. As a result, the population dropped from approx 160,000 to 17,000, of which 16,000 were aboriginal and had no right to vote under Canadian law. The government of the Northwest Territories defaulted back to its 1870 constitutional status, and once again came under federal control. This period of the second council, which governed from Ottawa, lasted from 1905 to 1951.