Elections in the Ottoman Empire

Overview of elections held in the Ottoman Empire

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During the late Ottoman Empire, some elements of government were democratized. Seven general elections were held for the Chamber of Deputies, the popularly elected lower house of the General Assembly, the Ottoman parliament, two in the First Constitutional Era (1877–1878), and five in the Second Constitutional Era (1908–1920). The Chamber of Deputies used Ottoman electoral law. Local elections were held for provincial (Vilayet) assemblies, though they quickly fell out of fashion. In addition, Armenian, Protestant, and Jewish millets had their own assemblies: an Armenian National Assembly, a Protestant General Assembly, and a Jewish General Assembly, which held millet wide elections, with varying degrees of suffrage granted to laity outside Istanbul.

Before the Tanzimat, villages had long elected mukhtars, and for minorities: local ethnarchs, or kocabaşı.

## Ottoman general elections

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* Ottoman general election, 1877 (first)
* Ottoman general election, 1877 (second)
* 1908 Ottoman general election
* April 1912 Ottoman general election
* October 1912 aborted Ottoman general election
* 1914 Ottoman general election
* 1919 Ottoman general election
* 1920 Ottoman general election

## Local elections

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## Armenian National Assembly

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## Jewish General Assembly

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## Sources

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Elections in the Ottoman Empire

General elections|

* 1877 (I)
* 1877 (II)
* 1908
* 1912
* 1914
* 1919
* 1920

* See also – elections and referendums in successor states: Turkey
* Lebanon
* Iraq
* Israel
* Palestinian territories
* Syria

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