Romanian general election, 1937

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General elections were held in Romania in December 1937. The Chamber of Deputies was elected on 20 December, whilst the Senate was elected in three stages on 22, 28 and 30 December. The National Liberal Party remained the largest party, winning 152 of the 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 97 of the 112 seats in the Senate, although it lost its majority in the Chamber. The party's unexpectedly poor showing (failing to obtain 40% of the vote, which would have automatically guaranteed them a large parliamentary majority) meant they could not form a coalition with either their arch-rivals the National Peasants' Party or with the Iron Guard's Everything for the Country Party, King Carol invited the poet Octavian Goga to form a government, despite the fact that his National Christian Party finished fourth and had an avowedly anti-Semitic platform.

They were the last elections before King Carol II dissolved Parliament and instituted a royal dictatorship the following February. By the next elections under the 1923 Constitution in 1946, Romania had passed through two dictatorships and a third was rapidly consolidating. It was also the last election held under universal male suffrage.

Campaign

During the first round, clashes occurred at Orhei and Târgu Mureş, killing four and leading to 300 arrests. After the vote, the Electoral Commission surprised observers by deciding, in its allocation of seats by proportional representation, to count the entire country as one district, rather than use smaller districts, as had been the norm.

Results

Results of the 1937 general elections at county level

Party	Chamber				Senate
	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
National Liberal Party	1,103,353	36.5	152	–148			97	–8
National Peasants' Party	626,612	20.7	86	+57			10	+10
Everything for the Country Party	478,378	15.8	66	New			4	New
National Christian Party	281,167	9.3	39	+21			0	0
Magyar Party	136,139	4.5	19	+11			2	–1
National Liberal Party-Brătianu	119,361	3.9	16	+6			0	0
Radical Peasant Party	69,198	2.3	9	+3			0	0
Agrarian Union Party	52,101	1.7	0	–5			0	0
Jewish Party	43,681	1.4	0	0			0	0
German Party	43,612	1.4	0	New			0	New
Social Democratic Party	28,840	1.0	0	0			0	0
People's Party	25,567	0.8	0	0			0	0
Other parties	18,131	0.6	0	–			0	–
Invalid/blank votes	45,555	–	–	–		–	–	–
Total	3,071,695	100	387	0			113	+5
Registered voters/turnout	4,649,163	66.1	–	–			–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

• Kurt W. Treptow (1996) "Alegerile din decembrie 1937 şi instaurarea dictaturii regale" in Romania and World War II, Centrul de Studii Româneşti, Iaşi (Romanian)
• "4 Die as Rumania Votes", The New York Times, 21 December 1937, p18
• "Cabinet Aims to Rule Rumania", The New York Times, 24 December 1937, p4