Election to the House of Representatives in the Ottoman Empire 1908
General elections were held in November and December 1908 for all 288 seats in the Chamber of Deputies of the Ottoman Empire . They were the first elections in the Ottoman Empire in which political parties ran .
background
The Young Turk Revolution in July resulted in the restoration of the 1876 Constitution , which ushered in the Second Constitutional Era and the reconstitution of Parliament in 1878. This brought back many members of Parliament still alive; the only law introduced by parliament was the resolution to dissolve and call for new elections.
Electoral system
In the first round of voting, voters chose the electors (one for the first 750 votes in a constituency , then one for every 500 votes). In the second round, the electoral body elected the members of the Chamber of Deputies.
Result
The new parliament consisted of 147 Turks , 60 Arabs , 27 Albanians , 26 Greeks , 14 Armenians , 10 Slavs and four Jews . The Committee for Unity and Progress , the main driving force behind the revolution, was able to count on the support of 60 MPs, with which it was able to prevail against the Freedom and Unity Party (also: Liberal Union; LU). The Liberal Union was a free-democratic party, was strongly British and was closer to the palace . Of the Armenian MPs, four were members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) and two were from the Huntschak party .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Myron E. Weiner, Ergun Özbudun (1987) Competitive Elections in Developing Countries , Duke University Press, page 334
- ^ Philip Mansel , "Constantinople City of the Worlds Desire" quoted in Straits: The origins of the Dardanelles campaign
