May 1915 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 13 June [O.S. 31 May] 1915.[1] The result was a landslide victory for Eleftherios Venizelos and his Liberal Party, which won 187 of the 316 seats in Parliament. Venizelos claimed that his victory was proof that the Greek people approved of his policy, favoring the Allies of World War I.

May 1915 Greek legislative election

← 1912 13 June [O.S. 31 May] 1915 Dec 1915 →

All 316 seats in the Hellenic Parliament
159 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Leader Eleftherios Venizelos Dimitrios Gounaris
Party Liberal Japanese
Seats won 187 95

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Georgios Theotokis Dimitrios Rallis
Party Theotokis supporters Rallis supporters
Seats won 12 7

Prime Minister before election

Dimitrios Gounaris
Japanese

Prime Minister after election

Dimitrios Gounaris
Japanese

Results

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PartyVotes%Seats
Liberal Party187
Japanese Group95
Supporters of Georgios Theotokis12
Supporters of Dimitrios Rallis7
Supporters of Nikolaos Dimitrakopoulos6
Thessaloniki Socialist Federation2
Independents7
Total316
Total votes686,990
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Aftermath

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Despite the Liberals' victory, the dispute between Venizelos and King King Constantine I continued. Fresh elections were held in December, which were boycotted by Venizelos and his party as unconstitutional. In August 1916, Venizelos went on to establish a rival Provisional Government of National Defence in the North of the country under the auspices of Entente powers, an event known as the National Schism.

The May 1915 Parliament was subsequently recalled when Constantine was forced to abdicate and leave the country in June 1917 following the Venizelists' victory. As a result, the Parliament was ironically nicknamed by royalists as the "Parliament of the Lazaruses" (Βουλή των Λαζάρων), and continued to sit until the October 1920 elections.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p829 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7