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All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 11 May 1958. [1] The result was a second consecutive victory for Konstantinos Karamanlis and his National Radical Union, which won 171 of the 300 seats in Parliament.
Karamanlis decided to call for early elections, after some of the most prominent members of the National Radical Union defected from the party, including George Rallis and Panagis Papaligouras . Although Karamanlis could have a parliamentary majority, he preferred to go for elections, in order to achieve a renewed public support.
The pretext of the defection was a new electoral law that Karamanlis passed. Rallis was opposed to the law, thinking that it is going to be extremely favorable for the United Democratic Left, a party believed to be linked with the then-banned Communist Party of Greece.
The outcome of the results proved that Rallis' "fears" were justified. The United Democratic Left (EDA) became the second biggest party, defeating a divided centre.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Radical Union | 1,583,885 | 41.16 | 171 | +6 | |
United Democratic Left | 939,902 | 24.43 | 79 | – | |
Liberal Party | 795,445 | 20.67 | 36 | – | |
Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union | 408,787 | 10.62 | 10 | New | |
Union of Populars | 113,358 | 2.95 | 4 | New | |
List of Independents | 4,009 | 0.10 | 0 | –2 | |
Independents | 2,339 | 0.06 | 0 | –1 | |
Total | 3,847,725 | 100.00 | 300 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 3,847,725 | 99.58 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 16,197 | 0.42 | |||
Total votes | 3,863,922 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 5,119,148 | 75.48 | |||
Source: Nohlen & Stöver |
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