Greek plebiscite, 1946
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In 1946, a new plebiscite took place about the form of Greece's regime and the Greeks were asked again to decide whether they wanted a king or not. For the third time the office of George II was at stake. Nonetheless, the final result constituted an expected triumph for him, a triumph that cannot be analysed and understood without looking at the historical background of this period. The legislative elections of 1946, in which the right-wing parties achieved a landslide, had just taken place. The new conservative government of Konstantinos Tsaldaris was favourable to George II, but what influenced more the result was the atmosphere of the ongoing ghastly civil war.
This civil war convulsed Greece during two main periods: a) 1943-1944 and b) 1946-1949. When the plebiscite took place, the beginning of the second period was unfolding. Divisions became more intense among Greeks and that is why in the legislative elections the right-wing parties were strengthened, while on the other hand, the centrist parties that followed a more moderate but also more ambiguous policy lost part of their power. KKE boycotted the legislative elections and the plebiscite as well. George II symbolised the unity of the anti-communist forces and that explains the percentage of votes in his favour. The conservatives, along with prime minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris, supported him, whereas the centrists were divided. They disliked George II, but they also did not want to be accused of being "accomplices" of the communists.
The percentage of abstention is important in this plebiscite, as it gives an idea about the size of the KKE's core constituency.
| Summary of the 1 November 1946 Greek Plebiscite | Votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | ||||
| Yes (Νai) | 1,136,289 | 68.4 | |||
| No (Οxi) | 524,771 | 31.6 | |||
| Registered votes | 1,921,725 | ||||
| Total number of those who voted | 1,664,920 | ||||
| Abstention | 256,940 | 13.37 | |||
| No. of valid votes | 1,661,406 | ||||
| Invalid votes | 3,860 | 0.23 | |||
| Source: Texts of Constitutional History (Antonis Pantelis, Stefanos Koutsoumpinas, Triantafyllos Gerozisis), Second Volume (1924-1974) | |||||
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