hip acted to establish a new national
political organization, the Socialist Unity Front, in order to bring
representatives of the major mass organizations and other associations
into a party-dominated framework for the political mobilization of the
population (see ch. 8). As a replacement for the older and largely
ineffective People's Democratic Front, the new front organization was
structured around a national council and, theoretically, was given
advisory powers on important policy matters.

In addition to the PCR, the Socialist Unity Front's National Council
included representatives of: labor unions; cooperative farmers'
organizations; consumers' cooperatives; professional, cultural, and
scientific associations; women's youth, and veterans' organizations;
religious bodies; and the councils of the Hungarian, German, Serbian,
and Ukrainian minorities. Ceausescu was elected president of the front,
and Maurer, the vice president.

The first major activity of the Socialist Unity Front was the conducting
of national elections on March 2, 1969. As only the front was allowed to
nominate candidates, just one candidate was named for each Grand
National Assembly seat. The official results indicated that over 99
percent of the eligible voters cast their ballots and, of these, 99.75
percent endorsed the Socialist Unity Front slate. Elections to the newly
organized bodies of local government took place at the same time (see
ch. 8).

Convening ten days after the election, the new Grand National Assembly
reelected Ceausescu as president of the Council of State and renamed
Maurer as prime minister. At the same time, the assembly enacted
legislation establishing the Defense Council that Ceausescu had earlier
proposed. Observers of East European political affairs considered the
timing of this enactment, coming just three days before an important
meeting of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, as a further assertion of
Romania's independent course in international affairs (see ch. 10).

The Tenth Party Congress

Almost 2,000 delegates attended the Tenth Party Congress of the PCR held
in Bucharest from August 6 to 12, 1969. In addition, delegations were
present from sixty-six foreign communist parties (see ch. 10). The main
features of the congress included Ceausescu's unanimous reelection as
general secretary of the party for a five-year term, the enlargement of
the Central Committee from 121 to 165 members, and the approval of
revis