Istvánovits Eszter (szerk.): A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 51. (Nyíregyháza, 2009)
Történelem, helytörténet - Zsoldos Ildikó: Az 1905-ös és az 1906-os szabolcsi választások és győzteseik
Az 1905-ös és az 1906-os szabolcsi választások és győzteseik Varga 1999. Varga Lajos: Országgyűlési választások a dualizmus korában. In: Parlamenti választások Magyarországon 1920-1998. Szerk. Földes György - Hubai László. Napvilág Kiadó, Budapest 1999. Vietórisz 1896. Vietórisz József: A nyíregyházi kaszinó története. Nyíregyháza 1896. Zsoldos Ildikó Nyíregyházi Főiskola Történettudományi Tanszék Nyíregyháza H- 4400 Sóstói út 31/b. e-mail: zsoldosi@nyf.hu Elections and their winners in Szabolcs County in 1905 and 1906 The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, established by the 1867 Compromise, showed the signs of a protracting crisis in the 1890s, which reached its climax in the course of 1905 and 1906. The cause of the government crisis was the 1905 parliamentary elections. These elections can be considered unique in the period since this was the only one in the history of Dualism that was won by the opposition party at the national level too. The 1903-1904 obstruction and the ensuing government party action, the so-called “handkerchief ballot” had resulted in an unexpected event: it created a coalition of the opposition groups that, at the 1905 elections, defeated the Liberal Party in power since 1875. In the surveyed period, Szabolcs County included five constituencies: those of Kisvárda, Nagykálló, Nyírbátor, Nyírbogdány, Tiszalök as well as the town of Nyíregyháza with the right to have an MP of its own. In the period of the 1905 and 1906 parliamentary elections, most but not all of the voters in Szabolcs County favoured the Independence Party. The Liberal Party also had followers. The national tendency of disintegration within the Liberal Party had reached Szabolcs County, too. Led by a number of officers from the former military, a political movement emerged with the temporary formation and name of Szabolcs County Uj (new) Party. It did not work for long as Baron Dezső Bánffy had been sidelined in national politics. The conditions of party politics in Szabolcs in the surveyed period was also influenced by the fact that, though the number of the Constitution Party supporters was not relevant, they were fairly influential in the economic life. I have compared the winners of 1905 and 1906 parliamentary elections in Szabolcs on the basis of their descent, family relations, age, links to the county and its regions, career paths, and finally their political commitment to the voters. The MPs from Szabolcs featured a relatively high rate of the noble descent, as many as five persons of the six. In 1905 and 1906 only Nyíregyháza with the greatest number of a middle class population sent an MP with a bourgeois social background to Parliament in the person of László Meskó. Of those winning a seat, dr. Zoltán Pap was the only one who did not have strong links to the region he got his mandate from. In the case of all 309
