Items25The creator’s order
  1. 11974 Greek parliamentary election1974 Greek parliamentary electionHeld on November 17, 1974, months after the colonels' junta fell, this was Greece's first election since the military rule of 1967 to 1974. Konstantinos Karamanlis led his newly formed New Democracy to 54 percent and 220 of 300 seats. The speed is the lesson. Rather than let the old question of…0
  2. 21975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly election1975 Portuguese Constituent Assembly electionPortugal voted on April 25, 1975, exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution, in its first free election since 1925. Turnout was a record 91.66 percent. What makes it essential is the result. In a year when the revolution could have tipped toward a one-party left, Mário Soares's Socialist…0
  3. 31977 Spanish general election1977 Spanish general electionOn June 15, 1977, Spain held its first free election since 1936, before the Civil War, and 78.8 percent of voters turned out. Adolfo Suárez's centrist UCD came first with 165 seats, 11 short of a majority, and Felipe González's PSOE took 118 to become the clear main party of the left. This is the…0
  4. 41983 Argentine general election1983 Argentine general electionArgentina voted on October 30, 1983, marking the return of constitutional rule after the military dictatorship that called itself the National Reorganization Process. Turnout was 85.6 percent, and Raúl Alfonsín of the Radical Civic Union won the presidency with 52 percent. The result mattered…0
  5. 51984 Uruguayan general election1984 Uruguayan general electionUruguay's election of November 25, 1984 ended the civic-military dictatorship, and Julio María Sanguinetti of the Colorado Party won the presidency. Close to 88 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. It earns its place as an honest example of a flawed founding vote that still worked. The…0
  6. 61987 South Korean presidential election1987 South Korean presidential electionSouth Korea's vote of December 16, 1987 was its first direct presidential election since 1971, won by street protests that forced a constitutional amendment. Turnout was 89 percent. It belongs here as the cautionary founding election. Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung split the opposition and took…0
  7. 71989 Polish parliamentary election1989 Polish parliamentary electionPoland's vote of June 4, 1989 was only partly free: 65 percent of Sejm seats were reserved in advance for the Communist party and its allies, and just 161 were open. Solidarity took all 161 and every Senate seat but one. It is on this list because the half-measure still broke the regime. The scale…0
  8. 81989 Brazilian presidential election1989 Brazilian presidential electionBrazil's military regime ended in 1985 with an indirect vote by an electoral college, so the founding moment for ordinary voters came in 1989: the first direct presidential election since 1960, with rounds on November 15 and December 17 and turnout above 85 percent in both. Fernando Collor beat…0
  9. 91989 Chilean general election1989 Chilean general electionChile's vote of December 14, 1989 ended the military regime in place since 1973. Turnout was close to 95 percent, and Patricio Aylwin of the center-left Concertación won the presidency with 55 percent while his coalition took a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Read it for the fine print. Only…0
  10. 101990 East German general election1990 East German general electionThe Volkskammer election of March 18, 1990 was the only truly democratic vote East Germany ever held, and the first free one in the region since 1932. Turnout reached 93.4 percent. It is unique on this list because the founding election also ended the state. The CDU-led Alliance for Germany won…0