1946 Constantinopolitan general election (The Sublime Porte)

The 1946 Constantinopolitan general election was held on October 13, 1946 in order to elect all members of the Parliament. The election was set to determine the makeup of the Senate for the next six years and the Chamber of Deputies for the next four years. The election resulted in a bitterly divided Parliament, with the lower Chamber of Deputies being utterly dominated by ethnic parties, with the Turkish Republican Party obtaining 45 seats, making the formation of a coalition government extremely difficult. The voter turnout was 82% for both houses of Parliament.

Background
Following the adoption of the Constitution by referendum on September 15, elections were called for October 13 in order to simultaneously elect all the members of Parliament. The adoption of a first-past-the-post system led to a relative consolidation of public opinion into a set party. This led many Turks, Greeks, and Armenians to vote for their respective interest parties for the Chamber of Deputies, despite some ideological differences of certain voters and those parties. This discrepancy led to a larger representation of non-ethnic parties in the Senate, where proportional representation led to better results for leftist and liberal parties.

Electoral system
Despite the fact that this election determined the makeup of both houses simultaneously, the next election for the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies would be held separately because of their respective term lengths of six and four years. The electoral system of these elections was set in the Electoral Law of 1946, which determined that senators would be chosen via proportional representation while the deputies would be elected from single-member electoral districts via a first-past-the-post system. This arrangement served the purpose of creating a somewhat functional government in the Chamber, as the Senate was less the less powerful house of parliament.

Government formation
On the night of the election leaders of all parties that had gained representation (except the Communist Party) met to discuss the formation of a government of a national unity government, in opposition to the Communists and Islamists. Indeed, despite differences in their voting base, all parties of the planned government were broadly liberal on economic issues, which was set to unite them in the face of the Communist threat. A deal was struck on October 24, with an official coalition agreement signed on November 14. The coalition agreement led to TRP leader Fahri Korutürk being elected as President of the Senate, the LRP's Giulio Mongeri being named Prime Minister, while the leader of the Republican Tigran Adamyan was chosen as the country's ceremonial president.

The first Chamber of Deputies proved to be a short-lived one, as two successive governments under the leadership of Mongeri would progressively erode because of the inability of different coalition parties to find a common ground on social issues. Ultimately, the introduction of an anti-religious law in early 1947 led to the downfall of the second Mogeri government in a vote of no confidence, leading to the 1947 Constantinopolitan general election.