seniority; Former presidents of either legislative chamber who held this function for at least eight ordinary sessions; Former senators and deputies elected to at least ten legislatures, irrespective of their duration; Former presidents of the High Court of Cassation and Justice; Reserve and retired generals; Former presidents of the National Assemblies at Chișinău, Cernăuți, and Alba Iulia, which previously proclaimed their respective provinces' union with Romania in 1918 (see Union of Transylvania with Romania, Union of Bessarabia with Romania). Additionally, the Senate included an elective element, chosen by corporatist electoral colleges, including the chambers of commerce, industry, and agriculture, as well as university professors. In February 1938, amid the political crisis which soon led to the Second World War, King Carol II imposed a more authoritarian monarchy. Under the Constitution of 1938, Parliament lost some of its main powers. The Senate was to be composed of members appointed by the King, members by right, and members elected in single-member electoral areas, in the same manner as Assembly members. The proportion of appointed and elected members was to be equal, while senators by right still had to meet the conditions set out in the 1923 Constitution. Suspension and abolition (1940–1944) In September 1940, after the abdication of King Carol, the National Legionary State suspended the parliament but itself lasted less than five months. It was succeeded by Ion Antonescu's military dictatorship and the parliament remained suspended. After the royal coup of 23 August 1944, on 15 July 1946 the government controlled by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) issued an electoral law that re-organized the parliament as a single legislative body, called the Assembly of Deputies, thus disestablishing the Senate. Under the 1948 constitution this became the Great National Assembly, a relatively impotent body subordinate to the power of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). Senate recreated (1990) The Romanian Revolution of 1989 opened the way to restoring pluralistic electoral democracy. Under the country's new post-communist Constitution of 1991, approved by a national referendum in 1991, Romania returned to a bicameral parliamentary system, in which the Senate is an elected body. A referendum on modifying the size and structure of the Parliament from the current bicameral one with 137 senators and 334 deputies to a unicameral one with a maximum of 300 seats was held on 22 November 2009, at the same time as the first round of the 2009 presidential election. The