1993 Constantinopolitan general election (Queen of Cities)

The 1993 Constantinopolitan general election was held on June 13, 1993. Despite achieving a victory in the previous election Prime Minister Antoniou would lose his post after the Citizens' Front objected to his project of railway privatization, leading to the Socialists' Amina Saglam to become the country's first female prime minister in May 1992. Following a year of political instability the prime minister would call for an early election. The election marked a loss for the country's two major parties as the Socialists and the Liberal Reform Party both lost seats. Meanwhile, the center-left New Way party gained significant support. The entry of Act Now!, the Anti-Capitalist Party and the Turkish National Party made the new parliament the most divided since the 1984 election.

Electoral system
The 200 deputies of Parliament were chosen from a single nationwide electoral district with a 5% threshold.

Background
The three years of Antoniou's premiership since his 1989 victory were marked by the continuation of his policies that had significantly liberalized the country's economy while opening relations with the European Economic Community (EEC). The ensuing economic boom led to the adoption of neoliberal economics by some center-left politicians, leading to the creation of the New Way party by Thadée Nowakowski. The Antoniou government was fervently pro-European and the country progressed through its negotiations for accession to the EEC with a projected entry of Constantinople by 1995, along with Austria. Following the creation of the Migration Balance in 1988 and the completion of the Constantinople-Turkey border fences drastically reduced immigration from neighboring Turkey.

When Amina Saglam became prime minister in May 1992 she did not have the capacity to reverse the economic policies of the previous government due to the lack of parliamentary support. Her leadership of the country was fragile and her accomplishments were limited to the increase in social spending and the suspension of privatizations. As an ideological leftist, Saglam promised that under a new government she would retract many of the changes of the Antoniou government.

Government formation
The election did not lead to the emergence of a clear majority on the right or left with the New Way and Act Now! parties holding the balance of power. After unsuccessfully asking Saglam and Antoniou to form a government, efforts that were rejected by New Way and Act Now! respectively, leading to a parliamentary deadlock. After two months of negotiations Thadée Nowakowski was finally approved as prime minister of a minority coalition of New Way with the abstention of the Socialists, the Liberal Reform Party and Act Now! by 35 votes to 23, making it the government with the fewest amount of seats in the country's history.