Parliamentary elections were held in Czechoslovakia on 27 October 1929.^[1] The Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, emerged as the largest party, winning 46 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 24 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 90.2% in the Chamber election and 78.8% for the Senate.^[2] The rightward shift of the 1925 elections was reversed, with moderate centre-left groups (Social Democrats and Czechoslovak National Socialists) increasing their vote shares whilst the Communist Party suffered a set-back.^[3][4]

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1929 Czechoslovak parliamentary election

← 1925 27 October 1929 1935 →

Chamber of Deputies

All 300 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 151 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats +/– RSZML Antonín Švehla 14.97 46 +1 ČSDSD Antonín Hampl 13.05 39 +10 ČSNS Václav Klofáč 10.39 32 +4 KSČ Klement Gottwald 10.2 30 −11 ČSL Jan Šrámek 8.44 25 −6 DSAP Ludwig Czech 6.86 21 +4 HSĽS Andrej Hlinka 5.76 19 −4 German Coalition Franz Spina 5.37 16 New ČsND Karel Kramář 4.87 15 +2 DCVP–PGD–WSdM Karl Hilgenreiner 4.71 14 +1 ČŽOS Rudolf Mlčoch 3.94 12 −1 OKSZP–MNP–ZDP Janos Esterházy 3.49 9 +5 DNSAP Hans Knirsch 2.76 8 +1 DNP–SdLB 2.56 7 −3 ZWPSZ 1.42 4 New LPVKL Radola Gajda 0.96 3 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Senate

All 150 seats in the Senate 76 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader % Seats +/– RSZML Antonín Švehla 15.17 24 +1 ČSDSD Antonín Hampl 13.04 20 +6 ČSNS Václav Klofáč 10.33 16 +2 KSČ Klement Gottwald 10 15 −5 ČSL Jan Šrámek 8.68 13 −3 DSAP Ludwig Czech 6.93 11 +2 HSĽS Andrej Hlinka 5.85 9 −3 German Coalition Franz Spina 5.57 9 New ČsND Karel Kramář 5.04 8 +1 DCVP Karl Hilgenreiner 4.86 8 +1 ČŽOS Rudolf Mlčoch 4.25 6 0 OKSZP Janos Esterházy 3.62 6 +4 DNSAP Hans Knirsch 2.65 4 +1 LPVKL Radola Gajda 0.8 1 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after František Udržal RSZML František Udržal RSZML

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The 1929 election took place at a time of relative prosperity, just before the Great Depression.^[5]

The Communist Party was the sole multinational political party in the country at the time.^[6] It had emerged as a major force in the 1925 election and had around 150,000 members in 1928.^[6] In 1929 leadership shifted to a younger generation and a major purge of party ranks took place.^[6]

The Czechoslovak National Democrats contested the election in Slovakia together with the Slovak National Party led by Martin Rázus.^[7] Nevertheless, relations between Rázus and the leader of the National Democrats in Slovakia Milan Ivanka were strained, as the former was fiercely autonomist and the latter a strong supporter of Czechoslovak nationhood.^[7]

In Slovakia, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party resigned from the coalition government on 8 October 1929.^[8][9] The move followed a long controversy around the legal case of the party newspaper editor Vojtech Tuka, who was sentenced for espionage and treason on 5 October 1929.^[10] The Tuka affair had resulted in an internal rift in the party, with the expelled anti-Tuka faction (led by Juriga and Tománek) setting up their own Juriga's Slovak People's Party.^[11]

Hlinka's Slovak People's Party saw a decline compared to the 1925 vote, being reduced from 23 seats to 19.^[9] One interpretation is that two years of government participation without achieving Slovak autonomy had weakened the party.^[11] Moreover, the party had an ambiguous stance during the Tuka affair.^[11] The Juriga faction failed to make any impact in the election.^[11]

The Czechoslovak Social Democrats won five seats from Slovakia, an increase by three seats compared to the 1925 election.^[12] The Communist Party on the other hand retreated from 5 seats in Slovakia, compared to 8 seats in 1925.^[13] Magyar and German parties won 9 seats from Slovakia.^[9]

The Czechoslovak National Socialists, which lacked widespread support in the area, managed to win two seat from Slovakia.^[14] This was the best result for the party in Slovakia during the years of the First Republic.^[14] Another Czech party trying to build a base in Slovakia was the Czechoslovak People's Party, which managed to get its local leader Martin Mičura elected.^[14]

The Jewish Party, which had failed to win representation in 1925, managed to win two seats through an alliance with three Polish parties.^[15][16] Its deputies were Ludvík Singer from Bohemia and Julius Reiz from Slovakia.^[15][16]

General Radola Gajda's list ('League against Bound Tickets'), which called for the formation of a corporativist state, failed to make a major headway but won three seats (Gajda, Jiří Stříbrný and Karel Pergler).^[5][17] Gajda's political line was fascist, anti-Semitic and anti-German.^[17]

On 7 December 1929 František Udržal formed a coalition government of Czechoslovak Agrarians, Czechoslovak People's Party, Czechoslovak Social Democrats, Czechoslovak National Socialists, Czechoslovak National Democrats, Czechoslovak Traders' Party, German Agrarians and German Social Democrats.^[5] Whilst the cabinet was politically broadened after the 1929 elections, it lacked representation from Slovak populists, German Clericals or the Magyar parties.^[8][10]