Abstract:

Pursuant to article 72 of the 1961 Constitution, one third of the members of the Republican Senate elected by universal suffrage had to be renewed through partial elections held at two-year intervals. After the 1961 Senate elections, partial elections were planned to be held in 1963, but it was decided to postpone these elections for one year. The first partial Senate elections were held on June 7, 1964. Within the framework of the legal arrangements made before the elections, the proportional representation method was adopted, and intense debates occurred in the political arena regarding the adoption of this system. Political parties had objected and criticized each other's discourses rather than stating their work and goals in their electioneering. Due to the death of AP leader Ragıp Gümüşpala on the eve of the elections, the parties decided to stop their electioneering. As a result of the first partial Senate elections, AP came out as the first party with nearly half of the votes, CHP became the second party with around 41 percent of the votes, and the other parties lagged far behind these two parties. This study, it has been tried to make an analysis specific to the partial Senate elections held in 1964 and it has been aimed to deal with the election process in scope.

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