1938 Estmerish general election

Revision as of 20:50, 17 April 2022 by Kakletron (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
1938 Estmerish general election
← 1935 19 August 1938 1941 →

All 600 seats in the Chamber of Commons
301 seats needed for a majority
Registered32,018,777
Turnout25,403,272 (79.34%; Increase 3.7 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
  Ernest Bevin MP.jpg Austen Chamberlain MP.jpg 1st Earl of Halifax 1947.jpg
Leader Vincent Holmes Laurence Montgomery Hugo Gilbert
Party SPE SPP NDP
Leader's seat North Peaks Wimneyshire Wilds Milfield Parks
Seats won 233 182 83
Constituency vote 9,223,928 8,634,572 3,868,918
% vote 36.31% 34.01% 15.24%
Party vote 8,677,510 7,458,170 3,603,626
% vote 32.98% 29.40% 14.21%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Aneurin Bevan (1943).jpg Churchill HU 90973.jpg 1st Earl of Woolton 1947.jpg
Leader Herbert Davies Austen Molyneux Edgar Harris
Party ESWI CP RR
Leader's seat Hartham Dockside Longwood Little Lewdine
(defeated)
Seats won 51 19 17
Constituency vote 1,199,034 1,046,615 269,275
% vote 4.72% 4.12% 1.06%
Party vote 2,190,359 1,173,543 932,417
% vote 8.63% 4.63% 3.68%

Chairperson before election

Wolfgar Godfredson
Non-partisan

Prime Minister after election

Laurence Montgomery
SPP

The 1938 Estmerish general election was held on 19 August 1938. It was the first nationwide general election to take place after the conclusion of the Great War, though it was preceded by the 1935 elections to the constitutional assembly. The newly reconstituted Chamber of Commons saw all 600 seats up for election. It was the first Estmerish election held under the new additional member system, which was semi-proportional and made it harder to attain a single-party majority.

Estmere was a changed country following the Great War. The occupation had strengthened national unity and broken down class barriers, two referendums in 1936 had abolished the monarchy and ended the union with Borland, and the country narrowly avoided revolution in the 1937 mutiny. The mutiny ensured that Estmere was a federation, and the constitutional assembly had ensured that elections would be run under a semi-proportional system. The political landscape had changed with the country. The two titans of pre-war politics - the Unionist Party and the Constitutionalist Party - were both seen to have been tainted by their failure to prepare Estmere for war. The Unionists saw many of their high-profile figures defect to other parties of the right, such as the Sotirian People's Party and the National Democratic Party. The Constitutionalists were in a stronger position, but had nevertheless lost their position as the main party of the left to the Socialist Party of Estmere, and struggled to define themselves in the post-war world.

In spite of the tumult of the time, the conduct of the election was tame. The centre-left Vincent Holmes and centre-right Laurence Montgomery were the main figures expected to become prime minister, and they had both served closely together in the Fighting Estmere government. Holmes and Montgomery had agreed to protect the newfound national unity by running positive campaigns and refusing to denigrate the other candidate or their party. In recognition of this, the majority of other mainstream parties followed suit and ran positive campaigns of their own; the only major exceptions were the far-left Estmerish Section of the Workers' International and the right-wing Rally of the Republic.

The Socialist Party came first in the overall vote, but centre and centre-right parties won a majority of the seats. This was partially due to a higher than average turnout in Arvorne and Roland, which leaned to the right. President Godfredson called on Montgomery to assemble a government. He formed a broad coalition led by his own Sotirian People's Party, including the National Democrats, the Constitutionalists and the remnants of the Unionists, with additional support from the independent liberals and conservatives.

Results

There were 25,387,102 valid ballots cast. Turnout was 79.34%, with 25,403,272 voters, up 3.7% on the elections to the constitutional assembly.

Estmere 1938 Election Parliament.svg
PartyConstituencyPartySeats
Votes%Votes%
Socialist Party of Estmere9,223,92836.348,365,78432.98233
Sotirian People's Party8,634,57234.017,458,17029.40182
National Democratic Party3,868,91815.243,603,62614.2183
Estmerish Section of the Workers' International1,199,0344.722,190,3598.6351
Constitutionalist Party1,046,6154.121,173,5434.6319
Rally of the Republic269,2751.06932,4173.6817
Radical Liberal Party312,4601.23670,7672.643
Independent Socialists144,7990.57331,5241.314
Independent Liberals335,3231.32326,6051.294
Independent Conservatives256,5731.01177,2860.702
Party of the Swathish55,8870.2284,8110.332
All other parties37,5050.1552,9220.21
Total25,384,889100.0025,367,814100.00600
Valid votes25,384,88999.9325,367,81499.85
Invalid/blank votes18,3820.0737,5050.15
Total votes25,403,271100.0025,405,319100.00
Registered voters/turnout32,018,77779.34
Source: EBS News Archive
Popular party vote
SPE
32.98%
SPP
29.40%
NDP
14.21%
ESWI
8.63%
CP
4.63%
RR
3.68%
Others
2.79%


Parliament seats
SPE
38.83%
SPP
30.33%
NDP
13.83%
ESWI
8.50%
CP
3.17%
RR
2.83%
Others
2.5%