Özet:

The establishment of the Democrat Party on January 7, 1946 is of undeniable importance for the history of Turkish democracy. With the effect of the victory of the supporters of democracy in the Second World War, the opposition movement, which matured during the war years, resulted in the establishment of the Democratic Party in 1946. In fact, even though the National Development Party was founded in 1945, it could not really achieve the feature of being an alternative opposition party to the government. The fact that the general elections that should have been held in 1947 were pushed back a year ago, strained the power-opposition relations and highlighted the election held on July 21, 1946 as a "doubtful" election, and this brought greater debates in the political life. Despite these discussions, the 1946 General Elections were a turning point for Turkish democracy. With the new election law adopted on June 5, 1946, the majority system with open ballot, secret counting and list method was applied in the single-stage elections. The elections, which took place in a very active political atmosphere, were an important experience for both voters and parties. The DP frequently expressed the irregularities applied in these elections during its stay in the opposition and carried it to the election squares before the 1950 General Elections. In this article, the process of the 1946 General Elections in Adana, the competition of the parties with each other and the election results were tried to be examined.