A constitutional referendum was held in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

on 24 February 1938 to approve a new constitution granting dictatorial powers to

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930, until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. As the eldest son of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I, ...

. Voting was done by answering yes or no before an election bureau, with silence marked as yes. Voting was compulsory, and the amendments were approved by 99.87% of voters. The voting process has been described as deeply flawed and characterized by widespread intimidation.

Background

The proposed changes to the constitution included: *Giving the King the power to legislate and sole power to amend the constitution *Making the government solely responsible to the King *Allowing the King to dissolve Parliament at any time and rule by decree *Limiting the Parliament to bringing in laws in the "national interest" *Making the second chamber 50% appointed by the King and the remainder from professional organisations *Raising the voting age from 21 to 30 *Prohibiting "revolutionary propaganda"

Results

References

{{Romanian elections

Constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

Constitutional referendums in Romania