VOLBY DO AUTONOMNÍHO SNĚMU SLOVENSKÉ KRAJINY
THE ELECTION TO THE DIET OF SLOVAK LAND

Summary/Abstract: The election to the Diet of the Slovak Land that took place on December 18, 1938, is an example of how the opposition could be efficiently eliminated during the election under the existing democratic electoral law. The Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party (HSLS) that practically seized the power in Slovakia on October 6, 1938, tried to eliminate the possibility that any other party would present its candidates in the election. However, it had to proceed in accordance to the existing electoral laws. The government of the Slovak Land announced the election by the decree of November 26, 1938, and set the date to Sunday, December 18, 1938. The lists of candidates were to be presented in two exemplars as late as 21 days before the day of election, i. e. by 12 AM November 27, 1938, to the president of Land Electoral Committee at the Land Authority in Bratislava, that was formed by the plenipotentiaries of the running political parties. From the formal point of view, the announcement was in accordance with the existing laws from the time of the First Republic, the reality was, however, different. November 27, 1938, was Sunday, so, in reality, it was necessary to present the lists of candidates by Saturday November 26, i. e. the very day when the announcement was published. This meant that the list could have been presented only by those who had prior knowledge of the announcement and had the list ready beforehand – which was only the HSLS party. The only opposition party that tried to present its own candidates was the party of the Ruthenian minority of the pro-Russian character – Ruské národní jedinstvo (RNJ). The list, presented to the Land Electoral Committee on November 29, was refused because it arrived late. The complaint of the party to the electoral court was fruitless. The participation in the election on December 18, 1938, was mandatory according to the laws. The voter was obliged to cast a ballot into a box and to throw away the candidate lists he did not vote for into a crate. This, however, meant, due to the existence of only one candidate list, that the election was not secret. It is, therefore, not surprising that under such circumstances the candidate list of HSLS gained 98 % of all votes (1 260 261 votes). The legitimacy of the diet elected under such conditions is, however, very problematic.

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