1947 Hungarian parliamentary election

The Independent Smallholders' Party had won a large majority in the previous elections in 1945, but the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission had forced it into a coalition government which gave the Hungarian Communist Party key positions including the Ministry of Interior. Communist intrigues had then forced dozens of potent political rivals out of the ruling coalition on the grounds of ostensible reaction. In early 1947, the Communists accused large sections of the Smallholders' Party of complicity in the "Hungarian Fraternal Community" conspiracy, using it as an excuse to expel over 40 MPs and deprive the FKGP of its legally-won parliamentary majority.[2] This had culminated in the ouster of the democratically-elected Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy, who was blackmailed into exile in May 1947 under threat of being "revealed" as part of the plot. The expelled deputies had formed new parties like the Hungarian Independence Party (SZP) under Dezső Sulyok outside the governing coalition, but in July 1947 the Communist-controlled election dissolved the Freedom Party under a law intended to deprive its electorate of the vote. Sulyok went into exile soon after, and the anti-Communist opposition became divided between several parties. From this position of strength, the Communists began to organize new elections, confident that they could win them.

Preparations began for the elections in the summer of 1947, with Soviet troops still in the country. The Communists intended to exploit the situation that arose as a result of the disarray of their main rival, the Independent Smallholders Party, to gain a clear majority in the legislature.[3] Their campaign's central theme was the party's national character; during the coalition years, the Communists had presented themselves as the champion of national interests and as heirs to the nation's tradition.[4] During these preparations, two events clearly indicated the politicisation of economic issues and the economic significance of political decisions. Following pressure from Moscow, on 10 July the Hungarian government announced its abstention from the conference that was discussing the Marshall Plan for Europe's postwar reconstruction, which, as Joseph Stalin realised, was an attempt of the United States to counter the Soviet military and political dominance of central and southeastern Europe by economic machinations. Slightly earlier, a State Planning Office was created, the three-year plan as urged by the Communists in the previous year was enacted, and on 1 August its implementation began.[3]

A new electoral law (Lex Sulyok) was also introduced, which excluded about 466,000 people (almost a tenth of the electorate) on grounds of membership of the pre-war fascist party.

Despite rigging the elections (more than 50,000 fraudulent votes were cast for them)[5][6] the Communists only managed to increase their vote share to 22% and failed to attain an absolute majority even with the other parties of the Left Wing Bloc. Although the emasculated and demoralised Smallholders only received 15% of the vote, the groups that had seceded from them did well; the Democratic People's Party of István Barankovics came second (keeping alive a real opposition and showing the strength of popular commitment to pluralism)[5] and Zoltán Pfeiffer's Independence Party was not far behind the Social Democrats.[7] Parties outside the governing coalition won a total of 40% of the vote, despite Rákosi's pre-election predictions that they would only win 15%.[8] The Smallholders' Party and the groups which seceded from them — the DNP, MFP and FMDP — received a total of 2.5 million votes overall (around 51%), roughly the same vote share that the Smallholders had received two years earlier.

Party	Votes	%	Seats
			Constituency	National list	Total	+/–
Hungarian Communist Party	1,111,001	22.25	79	21	100	+30
Democratic People's Party	824,259	16.50	58	2	60	New
Independent Smallholders Party	766,000	15.34	54	14	68	–177
Hungarian Social Democratic Party	742,171	14.86	53	14	67	–2
Hungarian Independence Party	670,751	13.43	47	2	49	New
National Peasant Party	413,409	8.28	29	7	36	+13
Independent Hungarian Democratic Party	262,109	5.25	18	0	18	New
Hungarian Radical Party	85,535	1.71	6	0	6	+6
Christian Women's League	69,363	1.39	4	0	4	New
Civic Democratic Party	49,740	1.00	3	0	3	+1
Invalid/blank votes	31,950	–	–	–	–	–
Total	5,026,288	100	351	60	411	+2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Although the Left Bloc failed to win a parliamentary majority, the Smallholders' left wing thwarted a coalition initiative from the two main opposition parties, and the previous government coalition remained in office. The manageable Smallholder Lajos Dinnyés remained Prime Minister and dutiful fellow travelers from other parties were named to the cabinet for the sake of preserving the parliamentary facade. Cominform came into being just days after the new Dinnyés government took office, and in December Dinnyés was replaced by the leader of the Smallholders' left wing by the openly pro-Communist István Dobi.

Intimidation, targeting of the increasingly submissive democratic parties (and absorption of the Social Democrats), nationalisation, collectivisation and other measures soon rendered the 1945–47 period a short democratic interlude, with the Communists soon wielding exclusive power.[9]