Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 28 March 1948. They were the first elections held in the newly formed Romanian People's Republic, with King Michael having been forced to abdicate in December 1947. With all meaningful opposition having been eliminated, the People's Democratic Front, dominated by the Communist Romanian Workers Party received 93.2% of the vote and won 405 of the 414 seats in the Great National Assembly. Within the Front, the PMR and its allies won a total of 201 seats, seven short of a majority in its own right. Rump Liberal and Peasant parties appeared on the ballot, between them receiving 3.5 percent of the vote and winning nine seats.
Background
The Communists, with the help of Prime MinisterPetru Groza, had spent the previous two years after the rigged elections of 1946 consolidating their control. The turning point came in the second half of 1947, when the government initiated a campaign of harsh repression against the remaining opposition parties. The National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, the two largest opposition parties, were dissolved by the government. The National Peasants' leaders, Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache, were tried on charges of plotting to overthrow the government in the Tămădău Affair, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment. On 30 December, Groza and Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej confronted Michael and forced his abdication. Michael and his personal counselor would later claim this was done with the help of a detachment of troops from the pro-Communist Tudor Vladimirescu Division. Hours later, the Communist-dominated legislature abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Romania a "people's republic". A month before the elections, the Communists and part of the Social Democrats merged to form the Romanian Workers' Party. However, Communists retained key posts in the new party, and used the principle of democratic centralism to ensure that the Social Democratic part of the new party complied with the new order.
Results
Aftermath
A month after the elections, the legislature adopted a new constitution, which was heavily inspired by the Soviet constitution. Soon afterwards, all parties outside the People's Democratic Front ceased to exist. This was primarily due to a very broad interpretation of the new constitution's ban on associations of a "fascist or anti-democratic nature."
