Parliamentary elections were held in

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

on 18 December 1938 following the German annexation of the Sudetenland.

Background

On 6 October 1938 Slovakia declared autonomy, with Hlinka's Slovak People's Party (HSĽS) becoming the dominant political party in Slovakia. Some parties were partially forced to merge with HSĽS, whilst others were forbidden (Jewish parties, the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party) or their activities were suspended (e.g.

Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party (, SNS) is an ultranationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won seats in every Slovak pa ...

which refused to "voluntarily" join HSĽS). New Hlinka's Slovak People's Party - The Party of Slovak National Unity (HSĽS-SSNJ) then organized rigged elections to strengthen its position in Slovakia and for further negotiations with the central government. The elections were announced in the afternoon on Saturday 26 November 1938. Political parties were required to register by the next day, but the information was only officially published on Monday and in the daily press the following Thursday. The campaign contained strong anti-Czech and anti-Jewish propaganda, with those seeking to vote against labelled as traitors.

Electoral system

The election took the form of a referendum, with voters asked only one question "Do you want a new, free Slovakia?"

Mikuláš Teich Mikuláš Teich (24 July 1918 – 16 August 2018) was a Slovak-British historian of science, best known for the series of histories in national context which he co-edited with Roy Porter. He was married to the economic historian Alice Teichova. L ...

, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown (2011)
Slovakia in History
', Cambridge University Press, p169 The elections were supervised by the

Hlinka Guard The Hlinka Guard (; ; abbreviated as HG) was the militia maintained by the Slovak People's Party in the period from 1938 to 1945; it was named after Andrej Hlinka. The Hlinka Guard was preceded by the Rodobrana (Home Defense/Nation's Defen ...

, which had to find out how people voted. In many places, the government created separate polling stations for members of national minorities to trace their political preferences and "loyalty". Voters were presented with a United List of 63 candidates.

Results

Of the 63 members of the United List elected, 47 were members of Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, four were former members of the now-defunct

Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants (, , RSZML) was a centre-right agrarianism, agrarian party of Czechoslovakia, seen as representing big business and agriculture. In the period up to 1935 it was the biggest and most influential politi ...

, two were members of the new German Party and one was a representative of the Hungarian minority.

Aftermath

Josef Tiso Jozef Gašpar Tiso (, ; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War II, from 1939 to 1945. After the war, ...

used the results for the reconstruction of the autonomous government, thus weakening the influence of other former parties which "voluntarily" joined HSĽS. The first session of the new Diet of the Slovak Land was held on 18 January 1939, with elected as its chairman and

Jozef Tiso Jozef Gašpar Tiso (, ; 13 October 1887 – 18 April 1947) was a Slovaks, Slovak politician and Catholic priest who served as president of the Slovak Republic (1939–1945), First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany during World War ...

as Prime Minister. On 14 March the Diet accepted independence, following Tiso's explanation of his discussions with

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

in which the latter had ordered the Slovak government to declare independence.

Notes

References

{{Slovak elections

Parliamentary elections in Slovakia Legislative elections in Czechoslovakia Single-candidate elections

Election and referendum articles with incomplete results