1958 Greek legislative election

1958 Greek legislative election

11 May 1958
All 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament 151 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Ioannis Passalidis Georgios Papandreou Party ERE EDA Liberal Seats won 171 79 36 Popular vote 1,583,885 939,902 795,445 Percentage 41.16% 24.43% 20.67%
Prime Minister before election Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE Prime Minister after election Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 11 May 1958. The result was a second consecutive victory for Konstantinos Karamanlis and his National Radical Union, which won 171 of the 300 seats in Parliament.

Background

Karamanlis decided to call for early elections, after some of the most prominent members of the National Radical Union defected from the party, including George Rallis and Panagis Papaligouras. Although Karamanlis could have a parliamentary majority, he preferred to go for elections, in order to achieve a renewed public support.

The pretext of the defection was a new electoral law that Karamanlis passed. Rallis was opposed to the law, thinking that it is going to be extremely favorable for the United Democratic Left, a party believed to be linked with the then-banned Communist Party of Greece.

Results

The outcome of the results proved that Rallis' "fears" were justified. The United Democratic Left (EDA) became the second biggest party, defeating a divided centre.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Radical Union	1,583,885	41.16	171	+6
	United Democratic Left	939,902	24.43	79	–
	Liberal Party	795,445	20.67	36	–
	Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union	408,787	10.62	10	New
	Union of Populars	113,358	2.95	4	New
	List of Independents	4,009	0.10	0	–2
	Independents	2,339	0.06	0	–1
Total		3,847,725	100.00	300	0
Valid votes		3,847,725	99.58
Invalid/blank votes		16,197	0.42
Total votes		3,863,922	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		5,119,148	75.48
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Aftermath

Just after the elections Karamanlis formed a new government, taking back in his party the defectors.

The unexpected rise of EDA, barely nine years after the end of the Greek Civil War, sent alarms through the right-wing establishment, and measures were taken to combat the emergent "communist threat", including the division of the large urban electoral districts of Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki so that the left-voting areas would be separated (forming the Athens B, Piraeus B, etc. constituencies), as well as the establishment of a dedicated domestic security agency, the General Directorate of National Security.