Today in History – 9/10 May

“Our objective is free elections”

Convening on May 10th, following the formation of the Democrat Part on January 7, 1946, the Second Extraordinary CHP Convention commenced with the address of President İsmet İnönü, who was also the president of CHP at the time. Announcing that the general elections scheduled for 1947 would be moved to an earlier date as soon as the new election law was passed, İnönü added, “Our objective is free elections.”

On June 5th, the deputy election law was changed and the single-phase election process was adopted. Considering that all elections had been double-phase throughout the rule of a single party, this was a significant change. However, DP’s demands concerning the election law, such as secret vote and open count were not taken into consideration. Therefore, the elections held on July 21st were recorded in Turkish history as having been marked by a cloud of allegations and suspicions.