Romanian general election, 1937

General elections were held in Romania on 20 and 22 December 1937. It was Romania's last election before King Carol II dissolved Parliament and instituted a royal dictatorship the following February. By the next elections under the 1923 Constitution, Romania had passed through two dictatorships and a third was rapidly consolidating. It was also the last election held under universal male suffrage.

The first round of elections was for the Assembly of Deputies, then for the Senate. During the first round, clashes occurred at Orhei and Târgu Mureş, killing four and leading to 300 arrests. After the vote, the Electoral Commission surprised observers by deciding, in its allocation of seats by proportional representation, to count the entire country as one district, rather than use smaller districts, as had been the norm.

Gheorghe Tătărescu's Liberals, who had been in office since 1933, made an unexpectedly poor showing at the polls (failing to obtain 40% of the vote, which would have automatically guaranteed them a large parliamentary majority). Since they could not form a coalition with either their arch-rivals the National Peasants' Party or with the Iron Guard's party, Totul pentru Ţară, King Carol invited the poet Octavian Goga to form a government, despite the fact that his party finished fourth and had an avowedly anti-Semitic platform.

Official results

(Assembly of Deputies, followed by Senate; seat tally incomplete)

References

• (Romanian) Kurt W. Treptow, "Alegerile din decembrie 1937 şi instaurarea dictaturii regale", in Romania and World War II, Centrul de Studii Româneşti, Iaşi, 1996.
• "4 Die as Rumania Votes", The New York Times, December 21, 1937, p. 18
• "Cabinet Aims to Rule Rumania", The New York Times, December 24, 1937, p. 4