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Full general elections were held in Belgium on 2 June 1912. [1]
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,688 square kilometres (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.4 million. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.
Catholics had formed the government continuously since 1884. Minister Schollaert had drafted a controversial education law and was forced to resign in June 1911. He was succeeded by a government led by Charles de Broqueville. The education law intended to financially equalise public and private education, which was opposed by liberals and socialists as it benefited private (Catholic) schools. Both opposition parties, united against Catholics, were expected to win the elections. King Albert I intended to switch to a progressive government headed by liberal Paul Hymans. However, the elections unexpectedly increased the majority of the Catholic Party, which won 101 of the 186 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 54 of the 93 seats in the Senate. [2] Consequently, the incumbent Catholic government headed by Charles de Broqueville continued after the elections.
François (Frans) Victor Marie Ghislain Schollaert was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.
Charles Marie Pierre Albert, Count de Broqueville was the 20th Prime Minister of Belgium, serving during World War I.
Albert I reigned as the King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934. This was an eventful period in the history of Belgium, which included the period of World War I (1914–1918), when 90 percent of Belgium was overrun, occupied, and ruled by the German Empire. Other crucial issues included the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, the ruling of the Belgian Congo as an overseas possession of the Kingdom of Belgium along with the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, the reconstruction of Belgium following the war, and the first five years of the Great Depression (1929–1934). King Albert died in a mountaineering accident in eastern Belgium in 1934, at the age of 58, and he was succeeded by his son Leopold III.
These elections were the first full general elections since 27 May 1900, when a proportional system using the D'Hondt method was introduced. Since 1893, there was universal suffrage with plural voting. Hence there were more votes than the 1,745,666 who could vote in these Chamber elections (out of a population of 7,571,387 in the country).
The D'Hondt method or the Jefferson method is a highest averages method for allocating seats, and is thus a type of party-list proportional representation. The method described is named in the United States after Thomas Jefferson, who introduced the method for proportional allocation of seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and in Europe after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to the parties. There are two forms: closed list and an open list.
Plural voting is the practice whereby one person might be able to vote multiple times in an election. It is not to be confused with a plurality voting system which does not necessarily involve plural voting. Weighted voting is a generalisation of plural voting.
Following the population census, the number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives increased from 166 to 186. The number of directly elected seats in the Senate (half the number of Chamber seats) consequently increased from 83 to 93; the number of provincial senators remained at 27.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Catholic Party | 1,337,315 | 51.01 | 101 | +15 | |
Liberal-Socialist Kartels | 710,459 | 27.10 | 45 | +25 | |
Liberal Party | 291,084 | 11.10 | 21 | -15 | |
Belgian Labour Party | 243,338 | 9.28 | 18 | -7 | |
Christian Democratic Party | 19,317 | 0.74 | 1 | 0 | |
Other parties | 20,258 | 0.77 | 0 | 0 | |
Invalid/blank votes | 62,327 | – | – | - | |
Total | 2,684,098 | 100 | 186 | +18 | |
Source: Belgian Elections |
Party | Votes | % | Seats |
---|---|---|---|
Catholic Party | 1,224,767 | 52.22 | 54 |
Liberal-Socialist Kartels | 480,457 | 20.49 | 16 |
Liberal Party | 408,043 | 17.40 | 14 |
Belgian Labour Party | 223,197 | 9.52 | 9 |
Christian Democratic Party | 8,937 | 0.38 | 0 |
Invalid/blank votes | 75,136 | – | – |
Total | 2,420,537 | 100 | 93 |
Source: Belgian Elections |
The distribution of seats among the electoral districts was as follows. [3] Several arrondissements got one or more additional seats, following the population census. With Neufchâteau-Virton receiving an extra seat, every electoral district now had at minimum three seats in the Chamber.
Province | Arrondissement(s) | Chamber | Change | Senate | Change |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Antwerp | Antwerp | 15 | +2 | 7 | +1 |
Mechelen | 5 | +1 | 5 | +1 | |
Turnhout | 4 | +1 | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 3 | – | |||
Limburg | Hasselt | 3 | – | 4 | +1 |
Tongeren-Maaseik | 4 | +1 | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 2 | – | |||
East Flanders | Aalst | 5 | – | 4 | – |
Oudenaarde | 3 | – | |||
Gent-Eeklo | 12 | +1 | 6 | +1 | |
Dendermonde | 4 | +1 | 4 | – | |
Sint-Niklaas | 4 | – | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 4 | – | |||
West Flanders | Bruges | 4 | – | 2 | – |
Roeselare-Tielt | 5 | +1 | 3 | +1 | |
Kortrijk | 5 | – | 4 | – | |
Ypres | 3 | – | |||
Veurne-Diksmuide-Ostend | 5 | +1 | 2 | – | |
Elected by the provincial council | 3 | – | |||
Brabant | Leuven | 7 | +1 | 3 | – |
Brussels | 26 | +5 | 13 | +2 | |
Nivelles | 4 | – | 2 | – | |
Elected by the provincial council | 4 | – | |||
Hainaut | Tournai-Ath | 6 | – | 3 | – |
Charleroi | 11 | +2 | 7 | +1 | |
Thuin | 3 | – | |||
Mons | 7 | +1 | 5 | – | |
Soignies | 4 | – | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 4 | – | |||
Liège | Huy-Waremme | 4 | – | 2 | – |
Liège | 13 | +1 | 7 | +1 | |
Verviers | 5 | – | 2 | – | |
Elected by the provincial council | 3 | – | |||
Luxembourg | Arlon-Marche-Bastogne | 3 | – | 3 | – |
Neufchâteau-Virton | 3 | +1 | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 2 | – | |||
Namur | Namur | 5 | – | 5 | +1 |
Dinant-Philippeville | 4 | – | |||
Elected by the provincial council | 2 | – | |||
Total | 186 | +20 | 120 | +10 |
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