1951 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 9 September 1951.[1] They resulted in an ambivalent outcome, consisting a narrow and pyrrhic, as proven later, victory for the ruling center-liberal parties of Sophoklis Venizelos and Nikolaos Plastiras.

1951 Greek legislative election

9 September 1951
All 258 seats of the Greek Parliament 130 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Alexandros Papagos Nikolaos Plastiras Party ES EPEK Leader since 1951 1949 Last election New 45 seats, 16.45% Seats won 114 74 Seat change New 29 Popular vote 624,316 401,379 Percentage 36.53% 23.49% Swing New 7.04%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Sofoklis Venizelos Ioannis Passalidis Party Liberal EDA Leader since 1948 1951 Last election 56 seats, 17.24% New Seats won 57 10 Seat change 1 New Popular vote 325,390 180,640 Percentage 19.04% 10.57% Swing 1.80% New
Prime Minister before election Sofoklis Venizelos Liberal Elected Prime Minister Nikolaos Plastiras EPEK

Background

After the Greek elections of 1950, when the divided centrist parties had a clear majority in the Parliament political instability was the main characteristic of the political life in Greece. The subsequent centre-liberal governments of Sophoklis Venizelos, Nikolaos Plastiras and Georgios Papandreou did not manage to ensure and enforce stability. As a result, Nikolaos Plastiras supported a People's Party government, under the terms that the latter would soon conduct elections.

Outcome

First party in the elections of 1951 was the just-founded Greek Rally of Alexandros Papagos, which swept the traditionally dominant right-wing People's Party. Nevertheless, the two major centrist-liberal parties, the Liberal Party and the National Progressive Center Union, elected more deputies than the conservatives.

The left-wing EDA, a party believed to have been affiliated with the outlaw during 1950-1974 Communist Party of Greece, made its first appearance in these elections.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Greek Rally	624,316	36.5	114	New
National Progressive Center Union	401,379	23.5	74	+29
Liberal Party	325,390	19.0	57	+1
United Democratic Left	180,640	10.6	10	–8
People's Party	113,876	6.7	2	–60
Georgios Papandreou Party	35,810	2.1	0	–35
Agricultural and Labour Party	21,009	1.2	1	New
Socialist Party of Greece	3,912	0.2	0	New
List of Independents	1,554	0.1	0	0
Communist Archio-Marxist Party of Greece	1,148	0.1	0	New
Independents	965	0.1	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	8,108	–	–	–
Total	1,717,107	100	258	+8
Registered voters/turnout	2,224,246	77.2	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote ES   36.53% EPEK   23.49% KF   19.04% EDA   10.57% LK   6.66% KGP   2.10% AEK   1.23% Others   0.38%

Parliament seats ES   44.19% EPEK   28.68% KF   22.09% EDA   3.88% LK   0.78% AEK   0.39%

Aftermath

Since no party or alliance had the absolute majority in the Parliament and Alexandros Papagos refused to participate in a government of national unity, the Liberal Party and the National Progressive Center Union formed a minority government under the leadership of Nikolaos Plastiras, which lasted for about a year, since 1952, when Nikolaos Plastiras submitted his resignation and new legislative elections were proclaimed by the King Paul I.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7