1956 Greek legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 19 February 1956.[1] The result was a victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party by securing the electoral vote despite trailing in the popular vote. It was the first general election in Greece in which women had the right to vote, although women had first voted in a by-election in Thessaloniki Prefecture in 1953 in which the first female MP was elected.

1956 Greek legislative election

19 February 1956
All 300 seats of the Greek Parliament 151 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Sofoklis Venizelos Party ERE FIDE Leader since 1955 1948 Last election 247 seats 51 seats Seats won 165 132 Seat change 82 81 Popular vote 1,594,112 1,620,007 Percentage 47.38% 48.15% Swing 1.8% 14.2%
Prime Minister before election Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE Elected Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE

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Although the Liberal Democratic Union, a coalition of centrist parties, received a slim plurality of votes, the conservative governing party, the National Radical Union, won the most seats due to a complex and controversial electoral system enacted by Karamanlis. A "first past the post" system was applied in the rural constituencies where the ERE was expected to gain a plurality, while proportional representation was reserved for the urban constituencies, where the Liberal Democratic Union was expected to lead.[2][3] As a result, the Liberal Democratic Union came up 19 seats short of a majority.

The Liberal Democratic Union included the Liberal Party, led by Sophoklis Venizelos and Georgios Papandreou, as well as the left-wing EDA, led by Ioannis Passalidis. A few years later, Georgios Papandreou and Sophoklis Venizelos renounced their alliance with EDA, breaking up the Liberal Democratic Union.