1946 Greek legislative election

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.

1946 Greek legislative election

← 1936 31 March 1946 1950 →

All 354 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
178 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Konstantinos Tsaldaris Sofoklis Venizelos
Party NPE EPE
Last election 22.10%, 72 seats 11 seats, 5.01%
Seats won 206 68
Seat change Increase 134 Increase 57
Popular vote 610,995 213,721
Percentage 55.12% 19.28%
Swing Increase33.02pp Increase14.27pp

  Third party Fourth party
 
Napoleon_Zervas.JPG
Leader Themistoklis Sofoulis Napoleon Zervas
Party Liberal EKE
Last election 37.26%, 126 seats
Seats won 48 20
Seat change Decrease 78 New
Popular vote 159,525 66,027
Percentage 14.39% 5.96%
Swing Decrease22.87pp New

Prime Minister before election

Themistoklis Sofoulis
Liberal

Prime Minister after election

Konstantinos Tsaldaris
People's Party

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

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PartyVotes%Seats
United Alignment of Nationalists[a]610,99555.12206
National Political Union[b]213,72119.2868
Liberal Party159,52514.3948
National Party of Greece66,0275.9620
Union of Nationalists32,5382.949
List of Independents12,0361.092
Union of Agrarian Parties7,4470.671
Party X1,8480.170
Civil and Agricultural Party1,1140.100
Parataxis of Orthodox Christian Greeks2980.030
Patriotic Party of Reservists630.010
Party for the National Union150.000
Socialist Party130.000
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

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  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.