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All 354 seats in theHellenic Parliament 178 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| This article is part ofa series on |
| Politics of Greece |
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Parliamentary elections were held inGreece on 31 March 1946.[1] The result was a victory for theUnited Alignment of Nationalists, an alliance that included thePeople's Party, theNational Liberal Party, and theReform 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 ofThemistoklis Sophoulis, who led a government of national unity (conservative and centre-liberal forces) during the entire second phase of thecivil war (1946–1949). One of the priorities of the new government was the proclamation of aplebiscite for the restoration of the Greek monarchy.
The elections were marked by the boycott of theCommunist Party of Greece claiming in protest against the unfolding, state-toleratedWhite Terror against the former members ofEAM-ELAS. The night before the elections, a communist band attacked a police station inLitochoro. 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 theLiberal Party, founded byEleftherios Venizelos. One faction remained loyal to the leadership ofThemistoklis Sophoulis, while another faction followedSophoklis Venizelos, who formed a coalition withGeorgios Papandreou andPanayiotis Kanellopoulos.
The American, French and British governments sent election monitors to observe the election.[4][5]
| 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 ofOrthodox 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 | ||||
