1979 Piraean national plebiscite

Revision as of 23:54, 16 January 2023 by Hifax (talk | contribs) (→‎Plebiscite)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
1979 Piraean national plebiscite
Continuation of
Ioannis Christodoulopoulos
and the rest of the Junta
Date5 July 1979 (1979-07-05)
Results
Votes %
Yes 2,336,996 43.84%
No 2,993,490 56.16%
Valid votes 5,330,486 76.06%
Invalid or blank votes 1,678,027 23.94%
Total votes 7,008,513 100.00%
Results by Regions
1979 Piraean Plebiscite regions map.png
  Yes     No

The 1979 Piraean national plebiscite (Piraean: 1979 Εθνικό δημοψήφισμα της Πειραεάς) was a referendum conducted in Piraea during July 1979, in which the electorate was asked about the continuation of Ioannis Christodoulopoulos and the military junta as Head of State and Government.

The referendum was conducted a year after the death of Konstantinos Athanopoulos, who ruled the Second Piraean Republic as a military dictatorship. That same year, the members of the military junta voted Ioannis Christodoulopoulos, who occupied the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, to be the Premier and sought to renew their term in power through the plebiscite. If the population approved the candidate of the junta and voted "Yes", the military institution would continue exercising as the executive, but if the result proved negative, a newly elected office and legislature would have been needed to be voted. Finally, the "No" to the candidate of the junta won by a 56% of the vote, igniting a process known as "Metapolitefsi" (Piraean: Μεταπολίτευση) or "regime change", which concluded with the general elections of 1980.

It is believed that international pressure from other Euclean nations and Piraean big business were crucial in the decision of the junta of respecting the results, as Piraea was one of the few remaining dictatorships of East Euclea.

Background

Electorate

Plebiscite

Option Parties and
alliances
Candidate
or leading face
Gov.
Nai 1979.png
Nikolaos Makarezos.jpg
Ioannis Christodoulopoulos ☑Y
Oxi 1979.png
Persconferentie van Andreas Papandreaou in Poort van Cleve te Amsterdam, Bestanddeelnr 921-2801.jpg
Andrianos Rodiales X mark.svg

Results

Aftermath