Communist-led political intrigues had deprived their opposition of its democratically won mandate from 1945, as numerous prominent anti-Communists were removed from office on charges of conspiracy.

These conspiracies reached a climax in late May 1947, when the Hungarian Communist Party deposed the democratically elected prime minister Ferenc Nagy in a coup d'état, removing one of the strongest opponents to their rule and crippling the opposition.

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.

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.

In addition, the Communists inserted a clause into the electoral law stating that the four government parties could divide over 80% of seats between them on the national list if the coalition won more than 60% of the vote.

[13] 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.

In December 1948 Dinnyés was ultimately replaced by the leader of the Smallholders' left wing: the openly pro-Communist István Dobi, who had been a secret card-carrying member of the Communist Party for years.

On 4 November, the Communist-controlled election commission accused the Hungarian Independence Party of fraud and summarily nullified all its parliamentary mandates—leaving over 700,000 voters unrepresented—and its leader Zoltán Pfeiffer fled into exile soon after.

The remaining effective opposition parties steadily buckled under Communist pressure over the course of the following year, with their members either arrested, deprived of their mandates, or fleeing into exile.