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.
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All 354 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 178 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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
edit| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Alignment of Nationalists[a] | 610,995 | 55.12 | 206 | |
| National Political Union[b] | 213,721 | 19.28 | 68 | |
| Liberal Party | 159,525 | 14.39 | 48 | |
| National Party of Greece | 66,027 | 5.96 | 20 | |
| Union of Nationalists | 32,538 | 2.94 | 9 | |
| List of Independents | 12,036 | 1.09 | 2 | |
| Union of Agrarian Parties | 7,447 | 0.67 | 1 | |
| Party X | 1,848 | 0.17 | 0 | |
| Civil and Agricultural Party | 1,114 | 0.10 | 0 | |
| Parataxis of Orthodox Christian Greeks | 298 | 0.03 | 0 | |
| Patriotic Party of Reservists | 63 | 0.01 | 0 | |
| Party for the National Union | 15 | 0.00 | 0 | |
| Socialist Party | 13 | 0.00 | 0 | |
| Independents | 2,833 | 0.26 | 0 | |
| Total | 1,108,473 | 100.00 | 354 | |
| Valid votes | 1,108,473 | 98.82 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 13,223 | 1.18 | ||
| Total votes | 1,121,696 | 100.00 | ||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver, Global Elections Database | ||||
- ^ Included the People's Party (156 seats), the National Liberal Party (34), the Reform Party (5) and others (11)
- ^ Included the Party of Venizelist Liberals (31 seats), the National Unionist Party (27), the Democratic Socialist Party (7) and others (3)
References
edit- ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p843
- ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p859
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.