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All 387 seats in theChamber of Deputies All 113 seats in theSenate | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 66.07% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held inRomania in December 1937.[1] TheChamber of Deputies was elected on 20 December, whilst the Senate was elected in three stages on 22, 28 and 30 December.[1] Voting was by universal male suffrage,[2] making them the last elections held before women could vote.
TheNational Liberal Party remained the largest party, winning 152 of the 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 97 of the 112 the Senate seats. However, unlike all previous elections organised by partisan governments, the results did not give the governing party a majority. The National Liberals' unexpectedly poor showing prevented it from creating a government on its own (obtaining 40% of the vote would have automatically awarded them a large parliamentary majority). They ruled out a coalition with their arch-rivals, the second-placedNational Peasants' Party, or with the third-placedIron Guard's Everything for the Country Party.King Carol II invited the fascistOctavian Goga to form a government, though hisNational Christian Party finished fourth and had an avowedlyanti-Semitic platform.Goga's government was formed on 29 December 1937.[3]
The members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected from multi-member constituencies with between two and twenty seats. Seats were allocated on a proportional basis, unless a party received over 40% of the vote nationally. If this happened, the party in question was awarded half of the seats in each constituency, with the other half divided proportionally amongst the all parties (including the victorious one), with an electoral threshold of 2%.[4]
The Senate was elected on a plurality basis. Voters had to be at least 21 to vote in the Chamber elections and 25 to vote in Senate elections. Candidates for both bodies had to be at least 40 years old.[4]
The campaign was marred by violent clashes between the two fascist groups, the National Christian Party'sLăncieri and theIron Guard.[5] During the first round, clashes occurred atOrhei andTârgu Mureş, when four were killed and which led to 300 arrests.
After the vote, the Electoral Commission surprised observers by deciding, in its allocation of seats byproportional representation, to count the entire country as one district, rather than use smaller districts, as had been the norm.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| National Liberal Party | 1,103,353 | 36.46 | 152 | –148 | |
| National Peasants' Party | 626,612 | 20.71 | 86 | +57 | |
| Everything for the Country Party | 478,378 | 15.81 | 66 | New | |
| National Christian Party | 281,167 | 9.29 | 39 | +21 | |
| Magyar Party | 136,139 | 4.50 | 19 | +11 | |
| National Liberal Party–Brătianu | 119,361 | 3.94 | 16 | +6 | |
| Radical Peasants' Party | 69,198 | 2.29 | 9 | +3 | |
| Agrarian Union Party | 52,101 | 1.72 | 0 | –5 | |
| Jewish Party | 43,681 | 1.44 | 0 | 0 | |
| German Party | 43,612 | 1.44 | 0 | New | |
| Social Democratic Party | 28,840 | 0.95 | 0 | 0 | |
| People's Party | 25,567 | 0.84 | 0 | 0 | |
| Traders Council | 1,219 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | |
| Other parties | 16,912 | 0.56 | 0 | – | |
| Total | 3,026,140 | 100.00 | 387 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 3,026,140 | 98.52 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 45,555 | 1.48 | |||
| Total votes | 3,071,695 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 4,649,163 | 66.07 | |||
| Source: Sternbergeret al.,[6] Nohlen & Stöver | |||||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Seats | +/– | |
| National Liberal Party | 97 | –8 | |
| National Peasants' Party | 10 | +10 | |
| Everything for the Country Party | 4 | New | |
| Magyar Party | 2 | –1 | |
| Total | 113 | +5 | |
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | |||
The elections were the last elections held under the nominally democratic1923 constitution. On 18 January 1938, less than a month after the elections, Goga asked Carol to dissolve Parliament. Carol granted the request, with a view toward holding fresh elections that winter. However, Carol became alarmed with overtures being made by the National Christian Party towards the Iron Guard,[7] and on 10 February 1938 he sacked Goga after only 45 days in office, suspended the constitution, cancelled the elections, and seized emergency powers. Later that year Carol pushed througha new constitution that concentrated all power in his hands, effectively codifying his emergency powers and turning his government into a royaldictatorship.
As a result, the elections were the last free multi-party elections until1990.[8] Elections held in1939 featured a single list from Carol'sNational Renaissance Front. By the time of the first elections after World War II in1946, the country had passed through two more dictatorships anda fourth, Communist one was rapidly consolidating.
| Parliamentary elections | |
|---|---|
| Presidential elections | |
| Local elections | |
| European elections | |
| Other elections | |
| Referendums | |
