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Elections for the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic were the big event of last month. On April 18 nearly eight million voters cast their ballots for members of the chamber of deputies, and one week later elections were held for the senate. The number of voters was surprisingly large, because franchise was given to all men and women 21 years of age, and because the law requires every qualified voter to go to the polls. In the senate elections the number of votes was about 12% less, as the electors have to be 26 years old. The great day of April 18, the first general election since the establishment of the Republic, passed without any disorders or disturbing incidents. At the time of writing press reports of Prague newspapers are not yet available, but cable reports are at hand presenting a good picture of the result. A total of 281 seats out of 300 is decided; there are four seats reserved for the soldiers from Siberia, and the seats for Rusinia have not yet been filled by elections.

Of the 281 elected deputies 199 are Czechoslovaks, 72 are Germans and 10 are Magyars. Among the Czechoslovaks the social democrats made considerable gains and so did the Catholics, while the national socialists, farmers and national democrats have sustained losses. The social democrats have a total of 74 seats, Catholics of people’s party 33, republican or farmers’ party 28, national socialists 24, national democrats 19, Slovak national farmers’ party 12, tradesmen’s party 6, progressive socialists 3. On the German side there are 31 social democrats, 15 united bourgeois parties, farmers 11, Catholics 10, democrats 5. Among the Magyars are 5 Catholics, 4 social democrats and 1 farmer. At the elections for the senate a week later no change was apparent in the sentiment of the people, and the slightly higher age of the voters had no appreciable effect on the result.

It is too early to speculate on the composition of the future government. After the dissolution of the first National Assembly the government of Vlastimil Tusar handed in its resignation to President Masaryk who asked the ministers to continue in their offices until someone should be entrusted with the formation of a new ministry after the elections. In the cable reports the name of Dr. Alfred Meissner appeared as a strong candidate for premiership, but later it was definitely announced that Mr. Tusar was once more charged with the construction of a government which would have the support of a majority in the new parliament. Whether Tusar was successful in this task is not yet known. Neither is it known, whether he will make the same combination as hitherto, of social democrats, national socialists, farmers and Slovaks, or whether he will offer one or more seats in the cabinet to German socialists. The National Assembly will meet on May 18, and the new government will make its bow to the representatives of the people on that day. In any case the government will be a coalition government, because no one party will be in the majority, even though the various socialist fractions will have together almost a half of the deputies.

The first National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic, a revolutionary body, closed its work on April 15, after seventeen