1929 Inglaterran Election

1929 Inglaterran Election

26 May 1929
All 350 seats in the General Assembly 175 seats needed for a majority
Registered	66,345,725 (3.3 pp)
Turnout	50,130,341 (77.1%) (0 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Gustaf Anders Johan Vaterson Karl Hoeven Party Social Republican Confederalist Communist Leader since 1926 1927 1923 Leader's seat Påskebyen Treffon Orcakust Seats before 118 140 22 Seats won 102 84 80 Popular vote 14,537,799 11,981,152 11,379,587 Percentage 29.0% 23.9% 22.7% Swing 4.4% 15.9% 16.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Linus Lindgren Hermen Klaassen Pieter Russo Party Free Democratic Reformist New Centre Leader since 1925 1925 1928 Leader's seat Fälklan Province Noardstêd Horuna Province Seats before 32 36 None Seats won 43 22 19 Popular vote 6,065,771 3,108,081 2,707,038 Percentage 12.1% 6.2% 5.4% Swing 3.0% 3.9%
Chancellor before election Erik van Vries Confederalist Elected Chancellor Gustaf Anders Social Republican

The 1929 Inglaterran Election was held on Sunday, 26 May 1929. It was the sixth election since Inglaterra's independence in 1899. All 350 seats in the Inglaterran General Assembly were up for election in a proportional election with a minimum threshold of 5% to enter the Assembly.

The election saw the most fractured results in Inglaterran history, with Social Republicans, Confederalists, Communists all getting over 25% of the vote, each. The Free Democrats recovered from years of decline, but the Reformists began a decline they would not recover from before 1936, where all other parties were outlawed. A new party, the united front New Centre Party took several seats and became a junior partner in the governing coalition.

This would be the final election before the 1935 election.

Background

The Great Business Collapse began at the end of 1928 and by May of 1929 had destroyed the economy, which was previously growing under Erik van Vries. This collapse led to the unemployment rate spiking to nearly 35% by election day, with millions out of work or jobless across the country. This led to a surge in extremist parties, such as the Communist Party, which quadrupled in size.

Both the Social Republicans and Confederalists feared a Communist victory would come soon, and so the Confederalists did not object when the Reformists, a nominal ally of the Confederalists, sided with the Social Republicans in a governing coalition. The New Centre Party and Free Democrats would also join the Social Republican-led governing coalition, in hopes to ensure that a Communist victory in 1935 would not occur.

The Confederalists, previously dominant, would lose large portions of supporters to the New Centre and Free Democrats. However, the Business Collapse affected the industrial eastern cities the most. As these were the base of the Confederalists in Inglaterra, their core voters flocked to the Communist Party in greater numbers than any other party.