Greek legislative election, 1946

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These elections were marked by:

• The marked abstention of voters, caused by the abstention of Communist Party of Greece, 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 over 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 (Κόμμα Εθνικών Φιλελευθέρων) * Reformatory Party * Others	Konstantinos Tsaldaris Stylianos Gonatas	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	Theodoras Tourkovasilis (Θεόδωρος Τουρκοβασίλης)	32,538	2.94		9
	Lists of Independents		12,036	1.08		2
	Union of Agrarian 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
	Parataxis of Orthodox Christian 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%†
Invalid votes			13,223	1.18

• ^†voting rights did not extend to women
• Sources: Texts of Constitutional history, Volume II

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