The National Front for the Implementation of the Constitution (, PER) was a 1938 electoral coalition in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

closely aligned with the Patriotic League.

History

In 1936—two years after

Konstantin Päts Konstantin Päts ( – 18 January 1956) was an Estonian statesman and the country's president from 1938 to 1940. Päts was one of the most influential politicians of the independent democratic Republic of Estonia, and during the two decades p ...

self-coup A self-coup, also called an autocoup () or coup from the top, is a form of coup d'état in which a political leader, having come to power through legal means, stays in power illegally through the actions of themselves or their supporters. The le ...

in 1934—the Patriotic League had been established as the sole legal political movement in the country, while the activities of all political parties were suspended due to state of emergency.Vincent E. McHale (1983) ''Political parties of Europe'', Greenwood Press, p380 A National Assembly was elected in 1936 to draw up a new

constitution 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 pri ...

. Prior to the

1938 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1938. Africa * 1938 South African general election Asia * 1938 Philippine general election * 1938 Philippine legislative election * 1938 Soviet Union regional elections Europe * 1938 Estonian parliame ...

the leaders of the Patriotic League set up the National Front to run in the elections, which were not entirely free and fair.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p566 The PER was effectively the only organisation to campaign in the elections, where only individual candidates were able to run. The PER won 64 of the 80 seats,Nohlen & Stöver, p587 eight of them unopposed.Nohlen & Stöver, p568

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Estonia Parties of one-party systems