1958 Greek parliamentary election

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1958 Greek parliamentary election
Flag of Greece (1822-1978).svg
  1956 11 May 1958 1961  

All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
151 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Konstantinos Karamanlis 1960.jpg Pashalidis Iv.jpg Papandreu-generel-state-archives.jpg
Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Ioannis Passalidis Georgios Papandreou
Party ERE EDA Liberal
Seats won1717936
Popular vote1,583,885939,902795,445
Percentage41.16%24.43%20.67%

 Fourth partyFifth party
  80-G-702560 cropped tsaldaris.png
Leader Alexandros Baltatzis Konstantinos Tsaldaris
Party PADE ELK
Seats won104
Popular vote408,787408,787
Percentage10.62%2.95%

Prime Minister before election

Konstantinos Karamanlis
ERE

Prime Minister after election

Konstantinos Karamanlis
ERE

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.

Contents

Background

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  [ el ]. 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.

Results

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.

1958 PARL.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
National Radical Union 1,583,88541.16171+6
United Democratic Left 939,90224.4379
Liberal Party 795,44520.6736
Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union 408,78710.6210New
Union of Popular Parties 113,3582.954New
List of Independents 4,0090.100–2
Independents2,3390.060–1
Total3,847,725100.003000
Valid votes3,847,72599.58
Invalid/blank votes16,1970.42
Total votes3,863,922100.00
Registered voters/turnout5,119,14875.48
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Aftermath

Just after the elections Karamanlis formed a new government, taking back in his party the defectors.

The unexpected rise of EDA, barely nine years after the end of the Greek Civil War, sent alarms through the right-wing establishment, and measures were taken to combat the emergent "communist threat", including the division of the large urban electoral districts of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki so that the left-voting areas would be separated (forming the Athens B, Piraeus B, etc. constituencies), as well as the establishment of a dedicated domestic security agency, the General Directorate of National Security.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7