In Yugoslavia, elections were held while it had existed as a Monarchy, the first one being in 1918 for the Provisional Popular Legislature of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which was preceded by local elections of National Councils in former Austria-Hungary, including the elections in Vojvodina and Montenegro for local parliaments) and the last being the parliamentary (National Assembly and half of the Senate) election of 1935. Women were not eligable to vote. After the 1918 indirect ones, the 1920 parliamentary election was the first direct one. Parliamentary Elections were held in 1923, 1925 and 1927, while with the new constitution a de facto Lower and Upper House were introduced in 1931 (the Senate next to the National Assembly). The 1931 elections weren't free, handled under a single-course dictatorship, while the 1935 and 1938 were handled under limited basic democratic principles, respectively
The country was broken by the Axis forces and occupied in 1941. After liberation, a referendum between two political options in 1945, also being the only referendum held in the old Yugoslavian state. It was also the first time that Yugoslavia introduced women's right to vote. The referendum was found dubious and criticized for being under worse conditions than the previous elections. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia ran unopposed, and in turn promulgated a new Constitution in 1946 that abolished the monarchy and transformed the country into a Federated Republic, also abolishing multi-party elections.
Nevertheless, elections were held on several occasions. Candidates were, however, proposed only by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia or by the Socialist Alliance of Working People of Yugoslavia as formally non-partisan candidates. Often, only one candidate has been proposed to electorate. The first elections were held on November 10, 1945, and the second in 1950. A new Federal Electoral Law was introduced on September 9, 1953, and it defined electoral units, the number of deputies in individual republics' parliaments, the candidate requirements (excluding party affiliation) etc. These kind of elections were held in 1953, 1958, 1963, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, and 1989.
With the decline of Communism, free elections were again reintroduced in 1990. These were held in each of the constituent republics:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina municipal elections, 1990
- Bosnia and Herzegovina general election, 1990
- Croatian parliamentary election, 1990
- Macedonian parliamentary election, 1990
- Montenegrin municipal election, 1990
- Montenegrin general election, 1990
- Serbian general election, 1990
- Slovenian parliamentary election, 1990
- Slovenian presidential election, 1990
According to abovementioned results, support for the former member parties of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia on the federal level at that point was between 35 and 40%.
Serbia and Montenegro remained together after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and had kept its name, ending the last remain of Yugoslavia after Montenegro's secession in 2006.
Famous quotes containing the words elections and/or yugoslavia:
“In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“International relations is security, it’s trade relations, it’s power games. It’s not good-and-bad. But what I saw in Yugoslavia was pure evil. Not ethnic hatred—that’s only like a label. I really had a feeling there that I am observing unleashed human evil ...”
—Natasha Dudinska (b. c. 1967)