Great National Assembly

Great National Assembly Marea Adunare Naţională
Romanian People's Republic (1948-1966) Socialist Republic of Romania (1966-1989)
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Established	1948
Disbanded	1989
Preceded by	Romanian: Reprezentanţa Naţionalǎ1 (Adunarea Deputaţilor2)
Succeeded by	Parliament of Romania (Chamber of Deputies and the Senate)
Seats	369
Elections
Voting system	open single party list
Meeting place
Palatul Adunǎrii Deputaţilor
Footnotes
1the name under witch the Parliament of Romania was defined by the 1866 and 1923 Constitutions; 2after the war the Constitution of 1923 was reestablished; due to the communist occupation of the country the Senate was suspended;

The Great National Assembly (Romanian: Marea Adunare Naţională; MAN) was the legislature of the Romanian People's Republic and the Socialist Republic Romania. When Communism was overthrown in Romania in December 1989, the National Assembly was replaced by a bicameral parliament, made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

The Great National Assembly was elected every four years and each of its members represented 60,000 citizens. Despite of this, many in capitalist countries believe that the Assembly was merely a façade which helped perpetuating the illusion of democracy.

Powers

Its role is given by article 43 of the 1965 Constitution of Romania and it includes 24 powers, which range from changing the constitution to the naming and deposing of the Supreme Commander of the Romanian Army. The resolutions required a simple majority to be passed through.

The Assembly convened twice a year for ordinary sessions and for extraordinary sessions as many times as required by the Council of State or by at least one third of the members of the Assembly. It elected its own chairmen and four deputies to preside each session.

Formally, the MAN gained in power over time: the 1948 Constitution (article 39) grants it just eight powers; the 1952 Constitution (article 24), 10.

1980 elections

According to the official results of the March 9, 1980, election, which elected 369 deputies, 99.99% of the registered voters cast their votes. Of them, 98.52% voted for the official candidates, 1.48% voted against and just 44 votes were declared invalid.

192 seats of the Assembly were occupied by women and 47 seats belonged to national minorities (mainly Hungarians and Germans).

Presidents of the Great National Assembly

The numbering continues from the old Assembly of Deputies presidents.

No. lower house	No.	Name	Portrait	Born-Died	Took office	Left office	Party
Great National Assembly 1948 - 1989
41	1	Gheorghe Apostol		1913 - 2010	7 April 1948	11 June 1948		PMR
42	2	Constantin Agiu			11 June 1948	27 December 1948		PMR
43	3	Constantin Pârvulescu		1895 - 1992	27 December 1948	5 July 1949		PMR
44	4	Dumitru Petrescu			5 July 1949	28 December 1949		PMR
45	5	Alexandru Drǎghici			28 December 1949	26 January 1950		PMR
(44)	(4)	Dumitru Petrescu			26 January 1950	29 May 1950		PMR
46	6	Constantin Doncea			29 May 1950	6 September 1950		PMR
(41)	(1)	Gheorghe Apostol		1913 - 2010	6 September 1950	5 April 1951		PMR
47	7	Ioan Vinţe		1910 - 1996	5 April 1951	26 March 1952		PMR
(41)	(1)	Gheorghe Apostol		1913 - 2010	26 March 1952	6 June 1952		PMR
48	8	Gheorghe Stoica			2 June 1952	30 November 1952		PMR
(43)	(3)	Constantin Pârvulescu		1895 - 1992	23 January 1953	5 March 1961		PMR
49	9	Ştefan Voitec		1900 - 1984	20 March 1961	28 March 1974		PMR/PCR
50	10	Miron Constantinescu		1917 - 1974	28 March 1974	18 July 1974		PCR
51	11	Nicolae Giosan			26 July 1974	12 December 1989		PCR