Greek legislative election, 1961

Greek legislative election, 1961

29 October 1961
All 300 seats to the Greek Parliament 151 seats were needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Konstantinos Karamanlis Georgios Papandreou Ioannis Passalidis Party ERE ΕΚ PAME Leader since 1955 1961 1951 Last election 171 seats, 41.16% - - Seats won 176 100 24 Seat change +5 +100 - Percentage 50.81% 33.66% 14.63% Swing +9.65% - -
PM before election Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE Subsequent PM Konstantinos Karamanlis ERE

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 29 October 1961. The result was a third consecutive victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party, which won 176 of the 300 seats in Parliament.

Nevertheless, the leader of the newly formed Center Union (an alliance of all liberal and centrist parties), Georgios Papandreou and the leaders of the left-wing Pandemocratic Agrarian Front questioned the legality of the results, claiming that Karamanlis, the army and the palace rigged the vote. Papandreou announced an "uncompromising struggle" (ανένδοτος αγών) against Karamanlis' government, demanding new elections. Karamanlis denied all the allegations of Papandreou, although the opposition parties insisted in them. Eventually, the elections of 1961 became known in the Greek political history as the "elections of violence and fraud" (εκλογές της βίας και νοθείας).

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
National Radical Union	2,347,824	50.8	176	+5
Centre Union-Progressive Party	1,555,442	33.7	100	New
All-Democratic Agricultural Front	675,867	14.6	24	New
List of Independents	41,550	0.9	0	0
Invalid/blank votes	20,803	–	–	–
Total	4,641,486	100	300	0
Registered voters/turnout	5,688,298	81.6	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote
ERE			50.81%
EK-KP			33.66%
PAME			14.63%
Others			0.90%

Parliament seats
ERE			58.67%
EK-KP			33.33%
PAME			8.00%