Where and when did the communist party come to power in the world for the first time through democratic elections?

• The October 1917 elections in Russia were neither free nor fair.

• The 11.11.1945 elections in Yugoslavia were neither free nor fair.

• In 1945–47 France’s Communist Party won the highest percentage of the national vote, and the greatest number of parliamentary seats. The party became party of a political coalition, with communists occupying some - but not the key - cabinet positions.

• Kerala held an election widely regarded as free and fair in 1957, which returned a Communist State Government. There have since been state election victories in West Bengal and Tripura.

• In 1995 Nepal’s Communist Party won the national elections, and nominated the first democratically-elected communist Prime Minster: Man Mohan Adhikari.