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288 seats in the Chamber of Deputies[1] | ||||
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General elections were held in November and December 1908 for all 288 seats of theChamber of Deputies of theOttoman Empire, following theYoung Turk Revolution which established theSecond Constitutional Era. They were the first elections contested by organised political parties.[1]
TheYoung Turk Revolution in July resulted in the restoration of the1876 constitution, ushering in theSecond Constitutional Era, and the reconvening of the 1878 parliament, bringing back many of the surviving members of that parliament; the restored parliament's single legislation was a decree to formally dissolve itself and call for new elections.
TheCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP), the driving force behind the revolution, was in an advantageous position for the election. Because it was still a secret organization, the CUP did not organize itself into a proper political party until well after the elections in its 1909 Congress at Selanik (Thessaloniki). The CUP and the ArmenianDashnak Committee ran in an electoral alliance.[2]
In the lead up to the election,Mehmed Sabahaddin'sLeague for Private Initiative and Decentralization [tr] established itself as theLiberty Party. The Liberty Party was liberal in outlook, bearing a strongBritish imprint and was closer to the Palace. It hardly had time to organize itself for the election. Under pressure from the CUP, the government arrested key supporters of Sabahaddin's as they attempted to campaign in Anatolia, and even presented death threats.[2]
The elections were held in two stages. In the first stage, voters elected secondary electors (one for the first 750 voters in a constituency, then one for every additional 500 voters). In the second stage the secondary electors elected the members of the Chamber of Deputies.[1] The CUP was successful in abolishing quotas for non-Muslim populations, by amending the electoral to instead stipulate one deputy to every 50,000 males.[3]
The Committee of Union and Progress, the main driving force behind the revolution, won every seat in parliament except for one. However, its parliamentary group very quickly whittled itself down to a core group of 60 deputies,[4] gaining the upper hand against the Liberty Party. Many independents were elected to the parliament, mostly from the Arab provinces. The new parliament consisted of 147Turks, 60Arabs, 27Albanians, 26Greeks, 14Armenians, 10Slavs, and fourJews.[1]
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Following the electoral victory, the CUP transformed itself from a clandestine organization to a political party. Before that would happen though,Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909) would attempt to regain his autocracy in what would be known as the31 March incident.
