People's Democratic Front (Romania)
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The People's Democratic Front (Romanian: Frontul Democrației Populare, FDP) was a political alliance in Romania during the communist era, dominated by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR).
History
The alliance was created as the National Democratic Front (Frontul Naţional Democrat) in October 1944, and was an alliance of the PCR, the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), the Ploughmen's Front (FP) and other Communist-affiliated organisations.[1] In the fraudulent 1946 elections the front formed the core of the Bloc of Democratic Parties, which won 347 of the 414 seats in Parliament.
The communists seized full power in December 1947, and in early 1948 forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Romanian Workers' Party (PMR). At a PMR congress held in February 1948, the National Democratic Front was converted into the FDP.[2] It quickly took on a character similar to other "national fronts" in the Soviet bloc. The member parties were completely subservient to the PMR, and had to accept the PMR's "leading role" as a condition of their continued existence.
In the March 1948 elections, the Front received 93% of the vote, winning 405 of the 414 seats. This election, like the 1946 contest, was heavily rigged.[3] Those elections would be the last in which opposition parties were even nominally allowed to take part during the Communist era. In the elections of 1952, 1957, 1961 and 1965, voters were presented with a single list of FDP candidates. In 1968 it was replaced by the Front of Socialist Unity.
References
- ↑ [http://countrystudies.us/romania/24.htm Romania: Postwar Romania, 1944-85
- ↑ Romania: Elimination of Opposition Parties Library of Congress Country Studies
- ↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, pp1604–1610 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
