1938 Estmerish general election

1938 Estmerish general election

19 August 1938
All 600 seats in the Chamber of Commons 301 seats needed for a majority
Registered	32,018,777
Turnout	25,403,272 (79.34%; 3.7 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Vincent Holmes Lawrence Montgomerie Hugo Gilbert Party SDCP 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   Leader Herbert Davies Austen Molyneux Edgar Harris Party ESWI ULP 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 Lawrence Montgomerie 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 semi-proportional additional member system.

Estmere was a changed country following the Great War; the monarchy in 1936 was abolished via referendum, and Borland left the union following a successful independence referendum in the same year. The compromise which ended the 1937 mutiny ensured that Estmere would be a federal republic, and the constitutional assembly ensured that elections would be semi-proportional. Against that tumultuous backdrop, the conduct of the 1938 election was relatively tame. The primary candidates for Prime Minister were centre-left Vincent Holmes and centre-right Lawrence Montgomerie, who had both served together in the exiled Fighting Estmere government, and the two had agreed to protect national unity by running positive campaigns. Most other parties followed suit, aside from the far-left Estmerish Section of the Workers' International and the right-wing Rally of the Republic, both of which ran abrasive campaigns.

Although Holmes and the Social Democratic and Co-operative Party came first in the overall vote, centre-right parties won a majority of the seats. This was partially due to a higher than average turnout in the centre-right heartlands of Flurland. President Godfredson called on Montgomerie to assemble a government, after he secured the support of his own Sotirian People's Party and the National Democratic Party, the United Liberal Party and the Rally of the Republic, 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 previous election.

Party		Constituency		Party		Seats
		Votes	%	Votes	%
	Social Democratic and Co-operative Party	9,223,928	36.34	8,365,784	32.98	233
	Sotirian People's Party	8,634,572	34.01	7,458,170	29.40	182
	National Democratic Party	3,868,918	15.24	3,603,626	14.21	83
	Estmerish Section of the Workers' International	1,199,034	4.72	2,190,359	8.63	51
	United Liberal Party	1,046,615	4.12	1,173,543	4.63	19
	Rally of the Republic	269,275	1.06	932,417	3.68	17
	Radical Liberals	312,460	1.23	670,767	2.64	3
	Independent Socialists	144,799	0.57	331,524	1.31	4
	Independent Liberals	335,323	1.32	326,605	1.29	4
	Independent Conservatives	256,573	1.01	177,286	0.70	2
	Party of the Swathish	55,887	0.22	84,811	0.33	2
	All other parties	37,505	0.15	52,922	0.21	–
Total		25,384,889	100.00	25,367,814	100.00	600
Valid votes		25,384,889	99.93	25,367,814	99.85
Invalid/blank votes		18,382	0.07	37,505	0.15
Total votes		25,403,271	100.00	25,405,319	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		32,018,777	79.34	32,018,777	79.35
Source: EBS News Archive

Popular party vote
SDCP			32.98%
SPP			29.40%
NDP			14.21%
ESWI			8.63%
ULP			4.63%
RR			3.68%
Others			2.79%

Parliament seats
SDCP			38.83%
SPP			30.33%
NDP			13.83%
ESWI			8.50%
ULP			3.17%
RR			2.83%
Others			2.5%