1848 Belgian general election

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1848 Belgian general election
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg
  1847 13 June 1848 (1848-06-13) 1850  

All 108 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
55 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond party
  Charlesrogier.jpg No image.png
Leader Charles Rogier
Party Liberal Catholic
Leader sinceCandidate for PM
Seats before55 seats53 seats
Seats won8325
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 28Decrease2.svg 28
Popular vote30,80613,122
Percentage69.52%29.61%

Government before election

Rogier I
Liberal

Government after election

Rogier I
Liberal

Full general elections were held in Belgium on 13 June 1848. [1] They followed an equalisation of the tax qualifications for voters, which widened the franchise from 1.0% of the population to 1.8%. [2] Unlike the previous rules which had favoured Conservatives and Catholics (as the requirements were lower in the countryside), [2] this benefitted the Liberal Party and damaged the Catholics, who lost more than half their seats. [2] [3]

Contents

Background

The existing electoral law differentiated in tax requirements between cities and countryside; cities (where Liberals were stronger) had to pay higher taxes in order to vote, compared to the countryside (where Catholics were stronger).

The Liberal Party held its founding congress two years earlier, on 13 June 1846, where it approved a proposal to lower the tax requirements in order to expand suffrage. By 1848, in the context of the Revolutions of 1848, reform was unavoidable. On the proposal of Liberal head of government Charles Rogier, the Parliament approved the law of 12 March 1848, which equalised and lowered the tax requirements to its constitutional minimum.

The new law benefited the Liberals, leading them to victory in these elections. The Liberals would retain their dominant position for the most part until 1884.

Campaign

One Chamber seat was uncontested, and won by the Liberal Party. [4]

Results

Chamber of Representatives

Belgian Chamber 1848.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Liberal Party 30,80669.5283+28
Catholics13,12229.6125–28
Others3830.8600
Total44,311100.001080
Total votes44,311
Registered voters/turnout79,07656.04
Source: Sternberger et al., Mackie & Rose


The vote figures do not include the constituency of Oudenaarde. [4]

Senate

Belgium Senate 1848.svg
PartySeats+/–
Liberal Party 31+11
Catholics22–10
Others1+1
Total540
Source: Sternberger et al.

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References

  1. Codebook Constituency-level Elections Archive, 2003
  2. 1 2 3 Nohlen, Dieter; Stöver, Philip (31 May 2010). Elections in Europe: A data handbook. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. pp. 271–271. ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7.
  3. Sternberger, D, Vogel, B & Nohlen, D (1969) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band I: Europa - Erster Halbband, p105
  4. 1 2 Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, p46