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Czechoslovakia ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Elections in Czechoslovakia are held not to offer the
electorate an opportunity to participate in a democratic choice
of their government representatives but to confirm the
representatives chosen by the KSC hierarchy. The July 1971
electoral law lengthened the time between elections from four to
five years (1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, and so forth) and designated
that they take place in the fall, so that each election comes
shortly after the party congress in the spring. The 1971 law
replaced a 1967 electoral law that allowed the electorate to
participate in the choice of candidates; the 1967 law was never
applied because the 1968 elections were postponed by the August
invasion. The November 1971 elections, then, were the first to be
held since 1964. These, like every election, proposed single
slates of candidates for the Federal Assembly, the two national
councils, and the regional, district, and municipal national
committees. The voter may cross out (disapprove) or not cross out
(approve) the name of any or all official candidates nominated by
the National Front. Polling booths are rarely used, and voting is
often carried out collectively by the work force of each
enterprise or by other groups of the population.
The 1971 elections were preceded by a concerted effort by a
group of dissidents calling themselves the Socialist Movement of
Czechoslovak Citizens to urge citizens to boycott the elections
or cross off official names in protest of the undemocratic
character of the 1971 election law. Official election results,
nevertheless, showed that 99.5 percent of the 10.3 million
eligible voters did cast ballots, and of these, some 99.8 percent
voted for the official candidates. Following the election, rumors
circulated that, in fact, up to 10 percent of the population had
not voted and that between 10 and 25 percent of the voters had
crossed out official names. Whatever the case, after the election
some 200 persons associated with the Socialist Movement of
Czechoslovak Citizens were arrested. Trials were held during July
and August 1972, at which 47 persons were sentenced to a total of
118 years in prison.
In elections held in May 1986, Czechoslovak officials
reported that 99.4 percent of registered voters participated in
the Federal Assembly elections, and 99.9 percent of the total
vote cast went to National Front candidates. Similar results were
reported in the elections for the Czech National Council and the
Slovak National Council and in the lower-level national
committees.
Data as of August 1987
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