1920 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Constitutional Assembly election

Constitutional Assembly elections were held in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 28 November 1920.

1920 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Constitutional Assembly election

28 November 1920 (1920-11-28)

All 419 seats in the Constituent Assembly
210 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout64.9%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Ljubomir Davidović Nikola Pašić
Party DS NRS
Seats won 92 91
Popular vote 319,448 284,575
Percentage 19.9% 17.7%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Filip Filipović &
Sima Marković
Stjepan Radić
Party KPJ HSS
Seats won 58 50
Popular vote 198,736 230,590
Percentage 12.4% 14.3%

Prime Minister before election

Ljubomir Davidović
DS

Elected Prime
Minister

Ljubomir Davidović
DS

The Democratic Party emerged as the largest faction, winning 92 of the 419 seats.[1] Deputies are elected by secret ballot, in a direct manner, by the electoral quotient system. The 1920 elections were the first democratic elections in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Shortly after the election, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was banned by the authorities.

Background

Up until the elections a Provisional Assembly had existed of unelected delegates from each of the constituent regions of the country.

Province Seats in
Provisional
Assembly
Seats in
Constitutional
Assembly
Bosnia and Herzegovina 42 63
Croatia-Slavonia 62 93
Dalmatia 12 11
Istria 4 N/A
Montenegro 12 10
Northern Serbia 84 103
Southern Serbia 24 55
Slovenia 32 40
Vojvodina 24 44
Total 296 419

Electoral districts

The electoral districts corresponded to administrative divisions of the constitutive lands which came together to form the Kingdom in late 1918. There were 56 in total:

Province No. of electoral districts Districts
Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 Banja Luka, Bihać, Mostar, Sarajevo, Travnik, Tuzla
Croatia-Slavonia 9 Bjelovar-Križevci, Lika-Krbava, Modruš-Rijeka, Požega, Syrmia, Varaždin (with Međimurje), Virovitica, Zagreb, City of Zagreb
Dalmatia 2 Dubrovnik-Kotor-Split, Šibenik-Zadar
Montenegro 1 Montenegro (single district)
Northern Serbia 18 Belgrade, City of Belgrade, Čačak, Kragujevac, Krajina, Kruševac, Morava, Niš, Pirot, Podrinje, Požarevac, Rudnik, Smederevo, Timok, Toplica, Užice, Valjevo, Vranje
Southern Serbia 12 Berane-Bijelo Polje-Pljevlja-Prijepolje, Bitola, Bregalnica, Kosovo, Kumanovo, Metohija, Ohrid, Prizren, Raška-Zvečan, Skopje, Tetovo, Tikveš
Slovenia 3 Celje-Maribor, Ljubljana-Novo Mesto, City of Ljubljana
Vojvodina 5 Veliki Bečkerek-Velika Kikinda, Novi Sad, Pančevo-Bela Crkva, Sombor, Subotica
Total 56

Parties

Election campaign of Communist Party in 1920.

There were a total of 22 party lists and one independent list.

  • Croatian Husbandmen's Party (Hrvatska težačka stranka, HTS) - Croatian nationalist political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina formed in 1919.[2] Its leader Jozo Sunarić had been a leading member of the Croat People's Union in the former Diet of Bosnia.
  • Croatian Popular Party (Hrvatska pučka stranka, HPS) - Political party formed in 1919 associated with the Croatian Catholic movement.[2] It ran candidates in districts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Vojvodina.
  • Independent Agrarian Party (Samostojna kmetijska stranka, SKS) - Slovenian anti-clerical political party founded in June 1919 in Ljubljana.
  • People's Radical Party (Narodna radikalna stranka, NRS) - Formed in Serbia in 1881, the People's Radical Party had formed the government of the Kingdom of Serbia since 1909 and its party leader Nikola Pašić became the first prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. Džemijet entered a coalition with the People's Radical Party and won six deputies.
  • Yugoslav Democratic Party (Jugoslovenska demokratska stranka, JDS) - Formed by former members of the Croat-Serb Coalition in Austria-Hungary led by Croatian Serb Svetozar Pribićević and opposition politicians in Serbia led by Ljubomir Davidović in February 1919. The party advocated a centralized state and the abolishment of regional autonomy.[2]

Results

Party Votes % Seats
Yugoslav Democratic Party319,44819.992
People's Radical Party284,57517.791
Croatian Popular Peasant Party230,59014.350
Communist Party198,73612.458
Agrarian Alliance-Independent Agrarian Party[a]151,6039.439
Yugoslav Muslim Organization110,8956.924
Slovene People's Party58,9713.714
Bunjevac-Šokac PartyCroatian Popular Party list[b]52,3333.313
Social Democratic Party46,7922.910
Croatian Husbandmen's Party38,4002.47
Džemijet30,0291.98
Croatian Community25,8671.64
Republican Party18,1361.13
Croatian Party of Rights10,8800.72
Ante Trumbić6,5810.41
People's Socialist Party6,1860.42
Liberal Party5,0610.31
Others12,1180.70
Total1,607,265100419
Registered voters/turnout2,480,62364.9
Source: Nohlen et al.

a Of the 39 seats won by the Agrarian Alliance-Independent Agrarian Party list, thirty were taken by the Agrarian Alliance and nine by the Independent Agrarian Party.

b Of the 13 seats won by the Bunjevac-Šokac PartyCroatian Popular Party list, nine were taken by the Croatian Popular Party and four by the Bunjevac-Šokac Party.

Footnotes

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Klaus Landfried (1969) Die Wahl der Parlamente und andere Staatsorgane, Walter de Gruyter, p783
  2. Donia 2006, p. 136.

References

  • Donia, Robert J. (2006). Sarajevo: A Biography. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-4721-1557-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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