1950 Weranian federal election

1950 Weranian federal election

16 June 1950
All 584 seats to the House of Deputies 292 seats are needed for a majority in the House of Deputies
Turnout	14,805,592 (79.68%) 1.77%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Lothar Gotthold Ludwig Stadtbäumer Viktor Beer-Hofmann Party OSAI SDP SPO Leader's seat Cislania Cislania Westbrücken Last election 197 seats, 32.50% – 41 seats, 6.77% Seats won 234 149 67 Seat change 37 New 26 Popular vote 5,748,396 3,656,432 1,648,372 Percentage 38.83% 24.70% 11.13% Swing 6.33% New 4.36   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Walther Ritter von Dittmann Konrad Böhm Egon Horstenau-Ranshofen Party KSP Radicals Landbund Leader's seat Roetenberg Bonnlitz-Ostbrücken Roetenberg Last election 193 seats, 31.82% 26 seats, 4.32% 77 seats, 12.82% Seats won 44 39 20 Seat change 149 13 57 Popular vote 1,206,849 974,829 506,553 Percentage 7.33% 6.58% 3.42% Swing 24.49% 2.26% 9.4%
Premier before election Walther Ritter von Dittmann KSP Elected Premier Viktor Beer-Hofmann SPO

The 26^th federal election was held in the Weranian Confederation for the House of Deputies (the lower house of the Bundestag) on the 16^th June 1950. All 584 members of the House of Deputies were elected under a system of proportional representation with each regierungsbezirke treated as an electoral districts. These would be the first elections held following the Valduvian-Weranian War after the expiration of the term of the House of Deputies.

The defeat of Weranian forces in the Valduvian-Weranian War and the failed Colonels putsch had shattered the authority of the right-wing Fatherland Bloc led by the Catholic Social Party which had dominated Weranian politics since the Great Collapse. The dismissal of the government of Franz Rössler, the signing of a peace treaty with Valduvia and the de facto cessation of Western Uschupes and the Zingebirge Basin had led to support for the government to collapse. The left-wing of the KSP split to form the Sotirian Democratic Party which called for a grand coalition committed to economic, social and political reform. They were joined by the Weranic Section of the Workers' International and the Social Democratic Party of Werania which signed the Neuensorg Charter with both parties advocating for an economic system based on Sotirian socialism and entry into the Euclean Community.

The election saw "Tripartite Majority" of the OSAI, SDP and SPO almost assured a majority; the governing right-wing coalition had lost legitimacy due to the war and were both divided and demoralised. Many centrist and centre-right voters moved to support the SDP and SPO to prevent a strong result for the OSAI and ensure any government formed would retain liberal democracy and free-market capitalism. This was to the detriment of the Fatherland Bloc parties which vacillated between a red scare and their own calls for post-war reform.

The election saw the Tripartite Majority gain over three quarters of all parliamentary seats with the OSAI making large gains. Despite identifying as a centre-left party the SDP gained the majority of right-wing voters. Due to mutual differences between the OSAI and SDP the SPO leader, Viktor Beer-Hofmann, became premier. The Fatherland Bloc parties collapsed with the KSP in particular being heavily defeated. The Fatherland Bloc parties never recovered and merged into the Liberal Democratic Party of Werania a year after the election. The Tripariate Majority would rule the country until the 1950 election.

Electoral process

The election was held using a system of proportional repsentation that had been introduced in 1905. The country had 76 electoral districts based on the regierungsbezirke with no electoral threshold. Seat totals were calculated via the greatest divisors method.

Parties

Affiliation	Party			Ideology	Spitzenkandidat	1925 result	In government
Left			Weranic Section of the Workers' International	Socialism, Revolutionary socialism	Lothar Gotthold	197 / 584	N
Centre-left			Social Democratic Party of Werania	Social democracy, Reformism	Viktor Beer-Hofmann	41 / 584	N
			Radical Party	Radicalism, Anti-clericalism	Konrad Böhm	26 / 584	N
			Sotirian Democratic Party	Sotirian Democracy, Popularism	Ludwig Stadtbäumer	0 / 584	N
Centre-right			Ruttish Sotirian Democratic Party	Ruttish regionalism, Sotirian Democracy	N/A	13 / 584	N
			National Liberal Party	National Liberalism, Classical liberalism	Gottfried von Litzmann	37 / 584	Y
Right			Centre Party	Agrarianism, Völkisch movement	Egon Horstenau-Ranshofen	77 / 584	Y
			Catholic Social Party	Political Catholicism, National conservatism	Walther Ritter von Dittmann	193 / 584	Y