1946 Greek parliamentary election

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1946 Greek parliamentary election
Flag of Greece (1822-1978).svg
  1936 31 March 1946 1950  

All 354 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
178 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
  80-G-702560 cropped tsaldaris.png Sophoklis Venizelos, 1921.png
Leader Konstantinos Tsaldaris Sofoklis Venizelos
Party NPE EPE
Last election22.10%, 72 seats11 seats, 5.01%
Seats won20668
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 134Increase2.svg 57
Popular vote610,995213,721
Percentage55.12%19.28%
SwingIncrease2.svg33.02 pp Increase2.svg14.27 pp

 Third partyFourth party
  Themistoklis Sofoulis.jpg
Napoleon Zervas.JPG
Leader Themistoklis Sofoulis Napoleon Zervas
Party Liberal EKE
Last election37.26%, 126 seats
Seats won4820
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 78New
Popular vote159,52566,027
Percentage14.39%5.96%
SwingDecrease2.svg22.87 pp New

Prime Minister before election

Themistoklis Sofoulis
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

Konstantinos Tsaldaris
People's Party

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 31 March 1946. [1] The result was a victory for the United Alignment of Nationalists, an alliance that included the People's Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Reform Party, [2] which won 206 of the 354 seats in Parliament. [3] As a result, Konstantinos Tsaldaris became Prime Minister leading a right-wing coalition. Nonetheless, he soon decided to resign in favor of Themistoklis Sophoulis, who led a government of national unity (conservative and centre-liberal forces) during the entire second phase of the civil war (1946–1949). One of the priorities of the new government was the proclamation of a plebiscite for the restoration of the Greek monarchy.

The elections were marked by the boycott of the Communist Party of Greece claiming in protest against the unfolding, state-tolerated White Terror against the former members of EAM-ELAS. The night before the elections, a communist band attacked a police station in Litochoro. This event is considered the beginning of the three years civil war.

One of the reasons for the defeat of the centre-liberal parties was the division of the Liberal Party, founded by Eleftherios Venizelos. One faction remained loyal to the leadership of Themistoklis Sophoulis, while another faction followed Sophoklis Venizelos, who formed a coalition with Georgios Papandreou and Panayiotis Kanellopoulos.

The American, French and British governments sent election monitors to observe the election. [4] [5]

Results

PartyVotes%Seats
United Alignment of Nationalists [a] 610,99555.12206
National Political Union [b] 213,72119.2868
Liberal Party 159,52514.3948
National Party of Greece 66,0275.9620
Union of Nationalists 32,5382.949
List of Independents 12,0361.092
Union of Agrarian Parties 7,4470.671
Party X 1,8480.170
Civil and Agricultural Party1,1140.100
Parataxis of Orthodox Christian Greeks2980.030
Patriotic Party of Reservists630.010
Party for the National Union150.000
Socialist Party 130.000
Independents2,8330.260
Total1,108,473100.00354
Valid votes1,108,47398.82
Invalid/blank votes13,2231.18
Total votes1,121,696100.00
Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Global Elections Database
  1. Included the People's Party (156 seats), the National Liberal Party (34), the Reform Party (5) and others (11)
  2. Included the Party of Venizelist Liberals (31 seats), the National Unionist Party (27), the Democratic Socialist Party (7) and others (3)

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Nohlen & Stöver, p843
  3. Nohlen & Stöver, p859
  4. Jessen, Raymond J.; Kempthorne, Oscar; Daly, Joseph F.; Deming, W. Edwards (1949). "Observations on the 1946 Elections in Greece" . American Sociological Review. 14 (1): 11–16. doi:10.2307/2086440. ISSN   0003-1224.
  5. Prévost, Jean-Guy (2018). "The 1946 Allied Mission to Observe Greek Elections" . Histoire & mesure. XXXIII (2): 163–192. doi:10.4000/histoiremesure.8146. ISSN   0982-1783.