Greek legislative election, 1946

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These elections were marked by:

• The marked abstention of voters, caused by the abstention of KKE, and the effects of the civil war (1943-1944, 1946-1949), because of which many citizens either could not or chose not to vote.
• The dominance of the right-wing parties against the centre-liberal parties, caused by the polarization between right and left.

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.

As a result of these elections, 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.

Summary of the 31st of March 1946 Greek Parliament (Vouli ton Ellinon) election results			Votes			Seats
			No.	%	+− %	No.	+−
	United Order of Patriot-Thinkers Inomeni Parataxis Ethnikofronon * People's Party *Party of National Liberals * Reformatory Party * Others	Konstantinos Tsaldaris	610,995	55.12		206 156 34 5 11
	National Political Union Ethniki Politiki Enosis *Party of "Venizelian Liberals" * Democratic Socialist Party * National Unionist Party * Others	Sophoklis Venizelos Georgios Papandreou Panayiotis Kanellopoulos	213,721	19.28		68 31 7 27 3
	Liberal Party	Themistoklis Sophoulis	159,525	14.39		48
	National Party of Greece Ethnikon Komma Ellados	Napoleon Zervas	66,027	5.96		20
	Union of the Nationally Minded Enosis Ethnikofronon	Tourkovasilis (Τουρκοβασίλης)	32,538	2.94		9
	Lists of Independents		12,036	1.08		2
	Union of Agricultural Parties Enosis Agrotikon Kommaton		7,447	0.67		1
	Party for the National Union (Χίτες)		1,848	0.17		-
	Civil and Agricultural Party		1,114	0.10
	Christian Orthodox Parataxis of Greeks		298	0.03		-
	Patriotic Party of Reservists		63	0.01		-
	Party for the National Union		15	0.00		-
	Social Party of Greece		13	0.00		-
	Others		2,833	0.25		-
No. of votes			1,121,695			354
No. of valid votes			1,108.472	15.49% of the population (note: voting rights did not extend to women)
Invalid votes			13,223	1.18

Sources: Texts of Constitutional history, Volume II

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