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
All 419 seats in the Constituent Assembly 210 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	64.9%
Leader Ljubomir Davidović Nikola Pašić Party DS NRS Seats won 92 91 Popular vote 319,448 284,575 Percentage 19.9% 17.7%   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 Party	319,448	19.9	92
People's Radical Party	284,575	17.7	91
Croatian Popular Peasant Party	230,590	14.3	50
Communist Party	198,736	12.4	58
Agrarian Alliance-Independent Agrarian Party^[a]	151,603	9.4	39
Yugoslav Muslim Organization	110,895	6.9	24
Slovene People's Party	58,971	3.7	14
Bunjevac-Šokac Party–Croatian Popular Party list^[b]	52,333	3.3	13
Social Democratic Party	46,792	2.9	10
Croatian Husbandmen's Party	38,400	2.4	7
Džemijet	30,029	1.9	8
Croatian Community	25,867	1.6	4
Republican Party	18,136	1.1	3
Croatian Party of Rights	10,880	0.7	2
Ante Trumbić	6,581	0.4	1
People's Socialist Party	6,186	0.4	2
Liberal Party	5,061	0.3	1
Others	12,118	0.7	0
Total	1,607,265	100	419
Registered voters/turnout	2,480,623	64.9	–
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 Party–Croatian 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)

External links

• Nebojša A. Popović, Srpske parlamentarne stranke u Kraljevini SHS 1918-1929
• Branko Petranović, Momčilo Zečević, Jugoslavija 1918-1988. Tematska zbirka dokumenata, p. 158