Greek legislative election, 1956

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Greek legislative election, 1956
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←  1952 19 February 1956 1958  →
All 300 seats of the Greek Parliament
151 seats were needed for a majority

 First partySecond party
  KaramanlisNatsinasAgora crop.jpg Sophoklis Venizelos, 1921.png
Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Sofoklis Venizelos
Party ERE FIDE
Leader since19551948
Last election247 seats51 seats
Seats won165132
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 82Increase2.svg 81
Popular vote1,594,1121,620,007
Percentage47.38%48.15%
SwingDecrease2.svg 1.8%Increase2.svg 14.2%
Prime Minister before election

Konstantinos Karamanlis
ERE

Elected Prime Minister

Konstantinos Karamanlis
ERE

Hellenic Republic
Coat of Arms of Greece (Monochromatic).svg
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Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 19 February 1956. [1] The result was a victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party by securing the electoral vote despite trailing in the popular vote. It was the first general election in Greece in which women had the right to vote, although women had first voted in a by-election in Thessaloniki Prefecture in 1953 in which the first female MP was elected.

Greece republic in Southeast Europe

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and historically known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2016. Athens is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki.

The National Radical Union was a Greek political party formed in 1956 by Konstantinos Karamanlis, mostly out of the Greek Rally party.

Womens suffrage the legal right of women to vote

Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the late 1800s, women worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms, and sought to change voting laws in order to allow them to vote. National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights, especially the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and also worked for equal civil rights for women.

Contents

Although the Liberal Democratic Union, a coalition of centrist parties, received a slim plurality of votes, the conservative governing party, the National Radical Union, won the most seats due to a complex and controversial electoral system enacted by Karamanlis. A "first past the post" system was applied in the rural constituencies where the ERE was expected to gain a plurality, while proportional representation was reserved for the urban constituencies, where the Liberal Democratic Union was expected to lead. [2] [3] As a result, the Liberal Democratic Union came up 19 seats short of a majority.

The Liberal Democratic Union was a coalition of six Greek political parties for the elections of 1956.

Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.

The Liberal Democratic Union included the Liberal Party, led by Sophoklis Venizelos and Georgios Papandreou, as well as the left-wing EDA, led by Ioannis Passalidis. A few years later, Georgios Papandreou and Sophoklis Venizelos renounced their alliance with EDA, breaking up the Liberal Democratic Union.

The Liberal Party, also the National Progressive Centre Union since 1952, was a major political party in Greece during the early-to-mid 20th century. It was founded in August 1910 by Eleftherios Venizelos and went on to dominate Greek politics for a considerable number of years until its decline following the Second World War. Among its most well-known members, apart from Venizelos, were Alexandros Papanastasiou, Nikolaos Plastiras, Georgios Papandreou and Konstantinos Mitsotakis.

United Democratic Left Greek political party (1951–1977)

The United Democratic Left was a political party in Greece, active mostly before the Greek military junta of 1967–74.

Ioannis Passalidis was a prominent member of the Greek Left and founder of the United Democratic Left party.

Background

In 1955, Karamanlis was chosen by the King Paul I as successor of prime minister General Alexandros Papagos, who had just died. The decision was controversial, as Karamanlis was not a leading member of Papagos' party, and caused the vehement reactions of the party's two most prominent members, Stefanos Stefanopoulos and Panagiotis Kanellopoulos.

Alexandros Papagos Greek military leader and politician

Alexandros Papagos was a Greek Army officer who led the Hellenic Army in World War II and the later stages of the Greek Civil War. The only Greek career officer to be raised to the rank of Field Marshal, he became the first Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff from 1950 until his resignation in 1951. He then entered politics, founding the Greek Rally party and becoming the country's Prime Minister after his victory in the 1952 elections. His premiership was defined by several events. The Cold War, and the aftermath of the Greek Civil War; Greece becoming a member of NATO; American military bases were allowed on Greek territory; a powerful and vehemently anti-communist security apparatus was created; and the communist leader Nikos Ploumpidis was executed by firing squad. His tenure also saw the start of the Greek economic miracle, and rising tensions with Britain and Turkey over the Cyprus issue.

Stefanos Stefanopoulos Prime Minister of Greece

Stefanos Stefanopoulos was a Greek politician, and served as Prime Minister of Greece from 1965 to 1966.

Panagiotis Kanellopoulos Greek politician

Panagiotis Kanellopoulos or Panayotis Kanellopoulos was a Greek author, politician and Prime Minister of Greece. He was the Prime Minister of Greece deposed by the Greek military junta of 1967-1974.

Nevertheless, Karamanlis, thanks to the support of the royal family and his own dextrous handlings, managed to establish himself as a strong leader. After stabilizing his leadership, he dissolved the Greek Rally party and created his own conservative right-wing party, the National Radical Union, which also comprised some prominent centrists (Evangelos Averoff, Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Konstantinos Tsatsos) and went on to dominate the Greek political scene for the next 8 years.

Evangelos Averoff Greek politician and author

Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas son of Anastasios, was a right-wing Greek politician and author of several books on political and historical topics.

Konstantinos Tsatsos revered Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician

Konstantinos D. Tsatsos was a revered Greek diplomat, professor of law, scholar and politician. He served as the second President of the Third Hellenic Republic from 1975 to 1980.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats
Liberal Democratic Union 1,620,00748.2132
National Radical Union 1,594,11247.4165
Progressive Party 74,5452.20
List of Independents 31,0020.92
Popular Social Party 29,3750.90
Christian Democracy 4490.00
Independents14,8510.41
Invalid/blank votes15,084––
Total3,379,425100300
Registered voters/turnout4,507,90775.0–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver
Popular vote
FIDE
 
48.15%
ERE
 
47.38%
KP
 
2.22%
Others
 
2.25%
Parliament seats
ERE
 
55.00%
FIDE
 
44.00%
Others
 
1.00%

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References

  1. ↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ↑ Eleftheria Newspaper, 22 May 2007, article on the history of election laws (in Greek)
  3. ↑ "Το Βήμα" newspaper, 12 Nov 2000, "Δημοκρατία Διάτρητη" (In Greek)
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