Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 20 November 1977.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p830 After Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis called for early elections, his New Democracy party lost a large number of seats, yet still retain an absolute majority in the Parliament. The big surprise was the success of PASOK, whose socialistic rhetoric remained radical. Because of PASOK's success, the Centrists (Union of the Democratic Centre, EDIK, former Center Union - New Forces) led again by Georgios Mavros) lost half of their power. As a result, Andreas Papandreou, PASOK's leader, became a prominent figure in Greek politics. The Communists (Communist Party of Greece) and the Nationalists (National Alignment) managed to amplify their support.

Future Prime Minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras first won a seat in parliament at this election.

Results

By constituency ConstituencyNDPASOKEDIKKKEEPAlliance%±%±%±%±%±%± Achaea 40.00 12.01 37.26 12.45 5.67 8.62 8.14New 6.46 5.94 2.02 6.11 Aetolia-Akarnania 49.24 10.64 26.16 10.33 10.18 5.34 7.58New 4.81 3.36 1.25 5.77 Argolis 46.01 22.02 25.50 9.87 10.40 2.51 3.45New 12.40 10.93 0.99 0.94 Arkadia 48.74 16.41 21.45 12.03 12.21 9.72 5.03New 11.20 10.48 1.11 1.58 Arta 39.32 25.38 27.91 12.53 12.60 0.74 6.86New 12.06 8.88 1.19 3.66 Athens A 42.83 11.19 22.58 10.90 9.18 10.93 11.51New 6.65 5.44 6.00 6.73 Athens B 36.14 10.44 27.58 14.41 8.30 12.97 16.09New 5.13 4.20 5.18 12.64 Attica 45.10 17.57 28.07 16.13 11.09 6.19 7.62New 5.48 4.72 1.80 5.28 Boeotia 39.40 20.41 30.96 15.39 11.99 3.42 7.37New 7.98 7.60 1.71 4.49 Cephalonia 39.67 17.87 24.05 16.30 9.76 12.42 13.06New 11.32New 2.12 10.00 Chalkidiki 52.82 13.67 25.31 13.21 10.70 5.76 4.16New 4.31 3.82 1.67 2.77 Chania 16.01 0.75 23.44 5.33 20.55 17.36 10.67New 0.95 0.09 1.98 7.52 Chios 47.76 5.43 15.67 4.78 27.03 2.25 5.40New 2.01 1.38 2.14 3.84 Corfu 35.44 12.83 32.07 9.58 7.65 11.01 10.03New 9.96 9.51 2.87 7.22 Corinthia 47.09 16.69 29.86 11.90 9.73 4.69 3.88New 6.16 5.21 1.49 1.38 Cyclades 54.95 7.96 22.92 12.48 12.61 11.20 3.45New 3.04 2.44 2.38 0.37 Dodecanese 41.32 4.03 27.71 6.70 25.06 5.73 2.72New 2.05 1.61 1.15 1.24 Drama 39.66 18.91 27.28 9.40 7.25 8.42 3.60New 10.23 9.21 1.51 3.00 Elis 35.24 17.99 31.00 16.22 18.11 9.70 3.70New 10.61 10.10 0.95 1.65 Euboea 42.72 15.90 27.68 13.49 13.08 8.83 5.28New 5.64 5.13 1.05 3.52 Evros 54.73 9.24 21.76 10.25 13.01 6.05 3.70New 4.34 3.07 1.70 2.45 Evrytania 46.43 17.85 28.44 15.30 13.67 7.07 3.05New 6.75New 0.55 1.29 Florina 47.03 23.60 15.62 9.65 19.17 0.66 4.80New 8.07 7.25 0.93 3.11 Grevena 32.44 26.87 18.09 4.62 26.98 5.58 8.05New 10.32 9.91 1.02 4.37 Heraklion 24.90 1.35 35.36 7.56 25.09 13.65 7.23New 0.72 0.52 2.18 4.79 Imathia 43.34 11.58 30.62 14.99 10.94 9.70 8.45New 4.16 3.72 2.03 6.32 Ioannina 46.26 15.76 24.78 15.15 8.57 11.37 8.11New 7.57 6.93 2.51 5.23 Karditsa 36.52 16.03 26.56 13.36 10.18 8.81 10.96New 14.29 13.49 1.01 7.58 Kastoria 44.21 19.18 19.49 14.83 9.97 12.10 2.82New 13.49 12.31 1.02 0.62 Kavala 50.50 6.49 23.30 11.76 9.37 8.60 7.44New 3.95 3.50 3.83 7.80 Kilkis 42.98 14.30 23.61 11.52 9.14 6.48 10.20New 11.35 10.01 1.67 8.79 Kozani 49.82 12.50 23.70 11.55 13.58 5.42 5.60New 5.38 4.87 1.77 3.75 Laconia 55.00 21.04 16.23 9.17 7.03 5.89 4.17New 16.24 15.32 0.88 2.16 Larissa 36.90 16.76 22.31 8.94 11.59 8.76 15.06New 10.31 9.61 2.31 9.57 Lasithi 29.61 0.64 26.18 5.78 30.97 15.02 4.19New 0.45 0.16 0.67 1.46 Lefkada 31.89 15.07 16.58 9.90 18.71 0.49 18.05New 8.17 7.33 4.52 22.62 Lesbos 42.77 0.11 20.79 5.65 7.96 8.81 24.37New 1.14 0.49 2.20 22.34 Magnesia 42.42 9.03 19.54 11.05 14.16 11.06 14.52New 5.39New 3.32 11.50 Messenia 44.43 19.13 23.37 9.83 10.94 6.36 6.08New 14.05 11.91 0.86 3.58 Pella 44.21 16.36 31.18 14.18 10.98 5.28 4.56New 7.35 6.08 1.36 3.42 Phocis 54.88 11.55 23.96 15.47 3.88 14.73 4.90New 10.59 7.93 1.02 2.77 Phthiotis 43.97 21.57 22.68 14.92 14.16 6.47 5.74New 11.01 9.53 1.11 3.42 Pieria 44.04 18.98 23.81 12.08 15.05 2.29 6.56New 8.29 7.39 1.90 5.08 Piraeus A 43.93 10.36 23.87 10.97 10.97 8.55 11.04New 4.89 3.90 4.20 8.06 Piraeus B 32.41 7.23 26.47 14.09 11.99 12.11 19.34New 2.99 2.27 5.18 17.96 Preveza 44.21 14.76 34.37 17.25 3.89 12.49 7.45New 8.87 6.37 1.21 3.80 Rethymno 29.49 5.70 24.28 3.76 13.93 4.71 4.57New 0.51 0.23 0.86 2.22 Rhodope 35.73 8.97 16.68 9.07 17.00 22.34 2.49New 27.31 20.60 0.78 0.84 Samos 43.39 7.83 10.88 3.67 21.54 2.97 17.58New 2.94 2.28 3.07 13.30 Serres 52.55 14.22 23.10 10.91 9.67 3.63 6.90New 5.59 5.25 1.82 5.55 Thesprotia 34.10 27.56 30.55 16.35 24.74 3.07 4.55New 5.32 5.03 0.75 1.40 Thessaloniki A 45.80 8.70 22.12 11.20 9.02 8.30 11.98New 4.18 3.14 5.51 10.36 Thessaloniki B 46.19 10.75 27.55 12.62 7.45 7.92 10.01New 5.32 4.52 2.03 9.80 Trikala 37.18 16.64 22.34 11.16 19.46 1.74 12.10New 7.87 7.25 1.13 8.49 Xanthi 43.86 8.71 22.45 14.22 23.99 0.35 2.07New 5.40 8.18 1.03 0.92 Zakynthos 36.33 16.81 20.39 15.54 7.38 25.67 15.79New 15.25 14.18 2.00 5.87

Seat allocation with the current system The seat allocation for the 1977 election was done using the 1974-1985 system, which was notorious for greatly favouring only parties that had received more than 17% of the public vote. As a result, ND and PASOK overperformed, grabbing seats from smaller parties (EDIK, KKE and EP). Also, there was no threshold for entering the parliament. As a result, SPAD and KNF managed to gain seats, something that would have been impossible with the current system. The seat allocation by region as it would have been with the current system is presented below:

RegionNDPASOK EDIKKKEEPSPADKNFS±S±S±S±S±S±S± Attica 33 1 17 6 6 0 12 5 4 2– 2– 0 Central Greece 12 2 4 1 2 2 – 0 1 1– 0– 0 Central Macedonia 26 3 10 4 3 2 3 2 3 3– 0– 0 Crete 6 2 5 2 5 1 1 1 – 0– 0– 2 Eastern Macedonia and Thrace 12 0 4 2 1 1 – 0 2 1– 0– 0 Epirus 7 1 4 2 1 1 – 0 – 0– 0– 0 Ionian Islands 4 2 2 1 – 0 1 1 – 0– 0– 0 North Aegean 5 1 – 1 2 2 1 0 – 0– 0– 0 Peloponnese 15 1 4 2 1 1 – 0 3 2– 0– 0 South Aegean 6 1 1 1 1 0 – 0 – 0– 0– 0 Thessaly 12 2 4 2 3 1 4 2 2 1– 0– 0 Western Greece 11 2 7 2 2 0 2 2 2 2– 0– 0 Western Macedonia 6 1 1 1 2 2– 0 – 0– 0– 0 Greece 5 2 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1– 0– 0 Total 160 11 66 27 31 15 25 14 18 13– 2– 2

Aftermath In 1979 Greece became European Community's 10th member, despite the opposition of PASOK and the Communists. In October 1980 Greece rejoined NATO military structure. In 1980, Konstantinos Karamanlis succeeded Konstantinos Tsatsos as President of the Republic. George Rallis became Prime Minister and new leader of ND.

Notes

References