Elections in the First Czechoslovak Republic

Parliamentary elections in the First Czechoslovak Republic were held in 1920, 1925, 1929 and 1935.[1] The Czechoslovak National Assembly consisted of two chambers, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, both elected through universal suffrage. During the First Republic, many political parties struggled for political influence and only once did a single party muster a quarter of the national vote. Parties were generally set up along ethnic lines.

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List of DSAP candidates for the Senate in the VII. Moravská Ostrava electoral district, stamped by the District Election Commission

Electoral system

The electoral system of the First Republic was based on the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920.[2] Parliamentary elections were regulated by Acts 123 and 208 of 1920.[3]

The Czechoslovak parliament at the time consisted of a Chamber of Deputies (300 members) and a Senate (150 members).[1] Parliamentarians were elected under a proportional representation system using multi-member electoral districts.[1] The Hare quota was used in the first count, and the Hagenbach-Bischoff quota in the second count.[4] The President of the Republic was elected by both houses of parliament.[2]

Suffrage was universal, secret and compulsory for all citizens aged 21 years and above for elections to the Chamber of Deputies and aged 26 years and above for the Senate.[3][5] Voters were required to have lived in their respective constituency for three months to be entitled to vote there.[3] Bankrupt citizens and citizens convicted of crimes could lose their right to vote.[3]

Candidates to the Chamber of Deputies had to be 30 years of age and Czechoslovak citizens for at least three years.[3] Candidates to the Senate had to be 45 years of age and Czechoslovak citizens for at least ten years.[3]

The Ministry of the Interior was charged with organizing the elections.[3]

Electoral districts

Initially, the republic had 23 electoral districts for elections to the Chamber of Deputies and 13 electoral districts for the Senate. Below is a table where the Chamber of Deputies electoral districts are organized by Senate electoral district, with 1921 and 1930 census data for reference. Constituency and seat numbers in parentheses refer to the situation before the 1925 re-districting.

Province Electoral district
(Chamber of Deputies)		 Seats Pop.
(1921)		 Pop./Seat
(1921)		 Pop.
(1930)		 Pop./Seat
(1930)		 Electoral district
(Senate)		 Seats Pop.
(1921)		 Pop./Seat
(1921)		 Pop.
(1930)		 Pop./Seat
(1930)
Bohemia

Districts: 9
Population:
1921: 6,664,932
1930: 7,014,559

Seats
Chamber of Dep.: (157)/160
Senate: (78)/79

Inhabitants per seat
Chamber of Dep.: 1921: 42,452
1930: 43,841
Senate:
1921: 85,448
1930: 88,792		 IA. Prague A (45)
24
+24		 1,741,455 38,699 931,889 38,829 I. Prague (23)
24		 1,741,455 75,715 1,942,914 80,955
IB. Prague B 1,011,025 42,126
II. Pardubice 11 477,384 43,399 488,959 44,451 II. Hradec Králové 11 983,719 89,429 1,007,491 91,590
III. Hradec Králové 12 506,335 42,195 518,532 43,211
IV. Ml. Boleslav 17 734,847 43,226 766,210 45,071 III. Ml. Boleslav 15 1,299,296 86,620 1,361,467 90,764
V. Česká Lípa 13 564,449 43,419 595,257 45,789
VI. Louny 17 785,513 46,207 824,681 48,511 IV. Louny 14 1,321,905 94,422 1,394,854 99,632
VII. Karlovy Vary 12 536,392 44,699 570,173 47,514
VIII. Plzeň 17 756,668 44,510 760,621 44,742 V. Plzeň 15 1,318,557 87,904 1,307,833 87,189
IX. České Budějovice 13 561,889 43,222 547,212 42,093
Moravia-Silesia

Districts: (6)/5
Population:

1921: 3,331,674
1930: 3,501,688

Seats
Chamber of Dep.: (73)/70
Senate: (37)/36

Inhabitants per seat
Chamber of Dep.:
1921: 45,639
1930: 50,024
Senate:
1921: 90,045
1930: 97,269

 X. Jihlava 9 432,310 48,034 435,177 48,353 VI. Brno 17 1,566,045 92,120 1,648,665 96,980
XI. Brno (16)
17		 755,151 47,197 808,015 47,530
XIII. Uherské Hradiště 8 378,584 47,323 405,473 50,684
XII. Olomouc 17 803,371 47,257 835,607 49,153 VII. Mor. Ostrava (16)
19		 1,456,015 91,001 1,853,023 97,528
XIV. Mor. Ostrava (14)
19		 652,644 46,617 1,017,416 53,548
(XXII.) Těšín (9) 309,614 34,402 – – (XII.) Těšín (4) 309,614 77,404 – –
Slovakia

Districts: 7
Population:
2,993,479
1930: 3,256,468

Seats
Chamber of Dep.: 61
Senate: 31

Inhabitants per seat
Chamber of Dep.:
1921: 49,073
1930: 53,385
Senate:
1921: 96,564
1930: 105,047		 XV. Trnava 9 433,405 48,156 477,195 53,022 VIII. Turč. Sv. Martin 10 950,325 95,033 1,045,065 104,507
XVII. Turč. Sv. Martin 11 516,920 46,993 567,870 51,625
XVIII. Báňská Bystrica 7 329,143 47,020 347,494 49,642 IX. Lipt. Sv. Mikuláš 7 577,845 82,549 607,947 86,850
XIX. Lipt. Sv. Mikuláš 6 248,702 41,450 260,453 43,409
XXI. Prešov 10 435,182 43,518 464,357 46,436 X. Prešov 5 435,182 87,036 464,357 92,871
XVI. Nové Zámky 11 629,458 57,223 706,999 64,273 XI. Nové Zámky 9 1,030,127 114,459 1,139,099 126,567
XX. Košice 7 400,669 57,238 432,100 61,729
Subcarpathian Rus'

Districts: 1		 (XXIII.)
XXII.		 Užhorod 9 605,731 67,303 706,850 78,539 (XIII.)
XII.		 Užhorod 4 605,731 151,433 706,850 176,713

Sources:[6][7][8][9]

Party system

Only accredited parties could present candidates for election.[10] With the proportional representation list vote system and ethno-linguistic pluralism, many different political parties flourished.[2] Parties were divided along class, ethnic, religious and regional lines.[2] After the formation of Czechoslovakia, new parties had begun to be formed in Slovakia whilst established Czech parties immediately expanded their activities to Slovak areas.[11]

The greatest vote-share any single party ever managed in a national election was 25.7%, earned by the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party (ČSDSD) in the 1920 election, and no other party received as much as 16% in any elections of the First Republic.[5] Thus coalition governments with the support of several parties became a necessity.[10]

1920 election
Antonín Němec, leader of the ČSDSD

Voting for the Chamber of Deputies occurred on April 18, 1920, and voting for the Senate was held a week later on April 25, 1920.[5] 281 members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected, as no elections were held in the Hlučín Region (part of the Moravská Ostrava electoral district, resulting in 1 fewer deputy elected from that district), the Těšín electoral district (9 deputies) and the Užhorod electoral district (9 deputies).[12][13][14][15][16] 23 parties contested the election; 16 won parliamentary representation.[16][17] The ČSDSD emerged as the largest party in the 1920 election, with 25.7% of the vote for the Chamber of Deputies, 74 deputies elected, 28.1% of the vote for the Senate and 41 senators elected.[5] There was also the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic (DSAP) with 11.1% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, 31 deputies and 16 senators, as well as the Hungarian-German Social Democratic Party with 1.8% of the Chamber of Deputies vote and 4 deputies.[5] The Czechoslovak People's Party (ČSL) became the second largest party in the parliament with 11.3% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, 33 deputies, 11.9% of the Senate vote and 18 senators.[5]

Among Czech voters, the 1920 election outcome was marked by remarkable stability compared to the 1911 election.[10] The gap between Czech socialist and bourgeois parties had only moved by 0.4% compared to the 1911 result.[10]

1924 election in Subcarpathian Rus'

Elections for representatives to the Czechoslovak parliament from Subcarpathian Rus' had been did not take place in 1920, as the area remained under a joint military-civilian administration.[18][19] A by-election for deputies to the Czechoslovak parliament from the Užhorod electoral district (i.e. Subcarpathian Rus') was held on March 16, 1924.[20][21][22][23] The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) emerged as the winner of the election.[24][25]

1925 re-districting
Map showing difference in percentage in variation from the average number of inhabitants per seat to the Czechoslovak Chamber of Deputies, as per the 1930 census data. The variations ranged from +24.30% (Prague A) to −38.55% (Užhorod).

Ahead of the 1925 parliamentary election, the 1920 electoral law was amended, resulting in the abolition of the Těšín electoral district (following the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors on the Polish-Czechoslovak border conflict).[26] About half of the territory of the Těšín electoral district had been awarded to Poland by the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors July 28, 1920.[27][28] The areas of the erstwhile Těšín district that remained in Czechoslovakia became part of the Moravská Ostrava electoral district.[27]

The nine Chamber of Deputies seats that had been allocated to Těšín in 1920 were re-allocated to the Prague (3), Brno (1) and Moravská Ostrava (5) electoral districts.[27][29] One of the Těšín Senate seats was allocated to Prague, the remaining three went to Moravská Ostrava.[27]

Moreover, the Prague electoral district was divided into two subdistricts, I A and I B, which each would elect 24 members of the Chamber of Deputies.[26][30]

No further changes in the distribution of seats of the Chamber of Deputies would take place ahead of the 1929 and 1935 elections.[16]

1925 election

The 1925 Chamber of Deputies and Senate elections were held on November 15, 1925.[5] 39 parties presented candidates, and 16 parties won seats.[2] The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (RSZML) was the party with the most votes, with 13.7% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, 45 deputies, 13.8% of the Senate vote and 23 senators.[5] With the Social Democracy divided, the Communist Party became the second largest party in parliament, with 13.2% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, 41 deputies and 20 senators.[5] Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (HSĽS) emerged as a major force in Slovakia.[5] With 34.3% of the votes from Slovakia, 23 deputies and 12 senators, the party was by far the largest in Slovakia.[5][31]

Act 56 (1927)

Act 56 of 1927 disenfranchised members of the armed forces and the gendarmerie from voting in parliamentary elections.[3]

1929 election

The 1929 parliamentary election was held on October 27, 1929.[31] The RSZML retained its position as the largest party, with 15% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, followed by the ČSDSD with 13%.[5] In Slovakia, HSĽS suffered a setback. It had renounced its government participation earlier the same month.[31] The party obtained 28.3% of the votes in Slovakia: 19 deputies and 9 senators.[5][31]

1935 election
SdP election poster. Text reads: "Protect the German homeland – Elect Konrad Henlein's men".
Election campaign leaflet of the National Fascist Community for the 1935 election

The 1935 parliamentary election was held on May 19, 1935.[31] The Sudeten German Party (SdP) became the largest party in parliament, with 15.2% of the Chamber of Deputies vote, 44 deputies and 23 senators.[5]

References
  1. P. Jehlička, T. Kostelecký, L. Sýkora. "Czechoslovak parliamentary elections 1990: old patterns, new trends and lots of suprises [sic]" (PDF).CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Richard Rose; Neil Munro (1 April 2009). Parties and Elections in New European Democracies. ECPR Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-9558203-2-8.
  3. John Francis Nejez Bradley (1991). Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1990. East European Monographs. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-88033-212-5.
  4. Sovinsky, J. The reforms of the electoral system in the mirror of constitutional principles (considerations in the Czech Republic) Archived 2016-03-25 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Richard Crampton; Benjamin Crampton (11 June 2016). Atlas of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century. Routledge. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-1-317-79952-8.
  6. Národní shromáždění Republiky Ceskoslovenské: Poslanecká sněmovna, Senát, Národní výbor, Revoluční národní shromáždění. Zivotopisná a statistická příruča ... s výňatkem nejdůležitějších ustanovení a dat, která se týkají Národního shromáždění. Nákladem a tiskem firmy Šmejc a spol. 1924. pp. 24–25.
  7. Czechoslovakia. Státní úřad statistický (1922). La statistique tchécoslovaque: Agriculture. XIIe série. 1–5. p. 16.
  8. Zborník Ústavu marxizmu-leninizmu a Filozofickej fakulty Univerzity Komenského: Historica. 32–33. Slovenské pedagogické nakladatels̕tvo. 1981. p. 113.
  9. Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. p. 247. ISBN 978-87-983829-3-5.
  10. Carol Skalnik Leff (14 July 2014). National Conflict in Czechoslovakia: The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918–1987. Princeton University Press. pp. 48–49, 67. ISBN 978-1-4008-5921-4.
  11. Free Europe Committee. Mid-European Studies Center (1957). Czechoslovakia. Mid-European Studies Center of the Free Europe Committee. p. 63.
  12. Jahrbuch des öffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart. 17–18. J. C. B. Mohr (P. Siebeck). 1929. p. 241.
  13. Otto Bauer (1926). Der Kampf: sozialdemokratische Monatsschrift. 19. Verlag Volksbuchhandlung. p. 12.
  14. "Volkswohl"; wissenschaftliche Monatsschrift. 11–12. 1920. p. 205.
  15. Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. p. 417. ISBN 978-87-983829-3-5.
  16. Český statistický úřad. Výsledky voleb v Československu (mandáty ve společných zákonodárných sborech)
  17. Joseph Lee (1989). Ireland, 1912–1985: Politics and Society. Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-521-37741-6.
  18. Martin Wein (11 February 2015). A History of Czechs and Jews: A Slavic Jerusalem. Taylor & Francis. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-317-60820-2.
  19. Prague Economic Papers. Institute of Economics, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. 1993. p. 371.
  20. Czechoslovakia (1920). Prager Archiv für Gesetzgebung und Rechtsprechung. 2. H. Mercy Sohn. p. 365.
  21. Collegium Carolinum (Munich, Germany); Karl Bosl (1979). Die erste Tschechoslowakische Republik als multinationaler Parteienstaat: Vorträge d. Tagungen d. Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee vom 24.-27. November 1977 u. vom 20.-23. April 1978. Oldenbourg. p. 231. ISBN 978-3-486-49181-4.
  22. Czechoslovakia. Státní úřad statistický (1926). Volby do Poslaneck ̌sn¿movny v listopadu 1925. Stt̀n ̕͠¿ad statistický.
  23. Yeshayahu A. Jelinek (2007). The Carpathian Diaspora: The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus' and Mukachevo, 1848–1948. East European Monographs. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-88033-619-2.
  24. Collegium Carolinum (Munich, Germany); Karl Bosl (1979). Die erste Tschechoslowakische Republik als multinationaler Parteienstaat: Vorträge d. Tagungen d. Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee vom 24.-27. November 1977 u. vom 20.-23. April 1978. Oldenbourg. p. 238. ISBN 978-3-486-49181-4.
  25. Komunistická revue. 1. Komunistická strana Československa. 1924. pp. 153–154.
  26. Manfred Alexander; Heidrun Dolezel; Stephan Dolezel (1983). Deutsche Gesandtschaftsberichte aus Prag: Innenpolitik und Minderheitenprobleme in der Ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik. R. Oldenbourg. p. 422. ISBN 978-3-486-55922-4.
  27. Czechoslovakia (1925). Prager Archiv für Gesetzgebung und Rechtsprechung. H. Mercy. p. 849.
  28. Oskar Krejcí (2005). Geopolitics of the Central European Region: The View from Prague and Bratislava. Lulu.com. p. 340. ISBN 978-80-224-0852-3.
  29. Europa Ethnica. 8. W. Braumüller. 1934. p. 779.
  30. Jahrbuch des öffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart. J. C. B. Mohr (P. Siebeck). 1929. pp. 254–255.
  31. Stanislav J. Kirschbaum (14 November 2013). Historical Dictionary of Slovakia. Scarecrow Press. pp. xxxix, xl. ISBN 978-0-8108-8030-6.
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