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.

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.

Results

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

  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