1974 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 17 November 1974.[1] They were the first after the end of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and took place during the metapolitefsi era. The winner was Konstantinos Karamanlis and his newly formed conservative party, ND (New Democracy, Νέα Δημοκρατία). Karamanlis had already formed a government of national unity just after the fall of the dictatorship. The second biggest party was the centrist Center Union - New Forces (Ένωσις Κέντρου-Νέες Δυνάμεις). Third power in the Parliament became the newly formed PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα), a radical socialist party led by Andreas Papandreou, son of the former prime minister Georgios Papandreou.

1974 Greek legislative election

17 November 1974
All 300 seats to the Greek Parliament 151 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Georgios Mavros Party ND EK-ND Leader since 4 October 1974 1974 Last election New 171 seats, 52.72% Seats won 220 60 Seat change New 111 Popular vote 2,669,133 1,002,559 Percentage 54.37% 20.42% Swing New 32.3%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Andreas Papandreou Ilias Iliou Party PASOK EA Leader since 3 September 1974 3 September 1974 Last election New New Seats won 12 8 Seat change New New Popular vote 666,413 464,787 Percentage 13.58% 9.47% Swing New New
Prime Minister before election Konstantinos Karamanlis ND Subsequent Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis ND

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats
New Democracy (ND)	2,669,133	54.4	220
Centre Union – New Forces (EK-ND)	1,002,559	20.4	60
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK)	666,413	13.6	12
United Left (EA)	464,787	9.5	8
National Democratic Union (EDE)	52,768	1.1	0
Democratic Centre Union (DEK)	8,509	0.2	0
Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece (EKKE)	1,599	0.0	0
Coalition Liberal Democratic Union-Socialist Party of Greece (FDE-SKE)	975	0.0	0
List of Independents and independents	42,291	0.9	0
Invalid/blank votes	54,584	–	–
Total	4,963,558	100	300
Registered voters/turnout	6,241,066	79.5	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote ND   54.37% EK-ND   20.42% PASOK   13.58% EA   9.47% EDE   1.08% Others   1.09%

Parliament seats ND   73.33% EK-ND   20.00% PASOK   4.00% EA   2.67%

  EA: 8 seats

  PASOK: 12 seats

  EK-ND: 60 seats

  ND: 220 seats

Aftermath

The priorities of the Karamanlis' government were:

• The adoption of a new Constitution
• The abolition of Monarchy after a free referendum
• The submission of a new application for Greece's accession to the European Community.

The new government decided to hold a referendum on retaining the republic. It was held on 8 December 1974.

In 1975 Konstantinos Tsatsos, a close friend of Karamanlis, was elected President of the Republic by the Greek Parliament.

References

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

Further reading

• Tridimas, George (2010). "Referendum and the choice between monarchy and republic in Greece". Constitutional Political Economy. 21 (2): 119–144. doi:10.1007/s10602-009-9078-4.