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212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colours denote the winning party in each electoral district (for the Chamber of Deputies). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Belgium |
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Constitution |
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Foreign relations |
General elections were held in Belgium on 31 March 1968. [1] The Christian Social Party remained the largest party. [2] Voter turnout was 90.0%. [3] Elections for the nine provincial councils were also held.
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.
The Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) was a Christian democratic political party in Belgium, which existed from 1945 until 1968 when it split along linguistic lines.
The country of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, the Flemish Region or Flanders, and Walloon Region, or Wallonia, are each subdivided into five provinces. The third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, is not divided into provinces, as it was originally only a small part of a province itself.
The snap elections were called after the government, a coalition of the Christian Social Party and the liberal Party for Freedom and Progress led by Christian Democrat Paul Vanden Boeynants, fell due to the Leuven Crisis.
Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants was a Belgian politician. He served as the 41st Prime Minister of Belgium for two brief periods.
The linguistic crisis would trigger the split of the dominant Christian Social Party into a Flemish and French-speaking party. The two other main parties would follow suit. The crisis also caused the rise of small linguistic, federalist parties, such as the People's Union on the Flemish side and the Democratic Front of the Francophones and Walloon Rally on the French-speaking side.
People's Union was a Flemish nationalist political party in Belgium, formed in 1954 as a successor to the Christian Flemish People's Union.
The Walloon Rally is a regionalist political party in Belgium, active in Wallonia since 1968. The party favoured federalism and since 1985 independence.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
Christian Social Party | 1,643,785 | 31.75 | 69 | –8 |
Belgian Socialist Party | 1,403,107 | 27.10 | 59 | –5 |
Party for Freedom and Progress | 1,080,894 | 20.87 | 47 | –1 |
People's Union | 506,697 | 9.79 | 20 | +8 |
Vanden Boeynants Cartel | 236,283 | 4.56 | 0 | New |
Communist Party of Belgium | 170,625 | 3.30 | 5 | –1 |
Democratic Front of the Francophones | 154,023 | 2.92 | 6 | +3 |
Walloon Rally | 151,421 | 2.92 | 6 | New |
Red Lions | 46,065 | 0.89 | 0 | New |
Walloon Workers | 3,474 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
Pro-Peking Communists | 3,119 | 0.06 | 0 | New |
ULS | 2,694 | 0.05 | 0 | New |
Return to Liège | 1,933 | 0.04 | 0 | New |
Flemish Social Movement | 1,922 | 0.04 | 0 | New |
Kaganovemus | 1,634 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 |
Dierenbes | 1,608 | 0.03 | 0 | New |
Walloon Communists | 964 | 0.02 | 0 | New |
Z. Kleur | 723 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
Flemish Communists | 702 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
FU Pop | 572 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
Trotskyists | 289 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
SH | 198 | 0.00 | 0 | New |
RJB | 161 | 0.00 | 0 | New |
Invalid/blank votes | 376,700 | – | – | – |
Total | 5,554,652 | 100 | 212 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 6,170,167 | 90.02 | – | – |
Source: Belgian Elections |
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
Belgian Socialist Party | 1,454,879 | 28.46 | 33 | +2 |
Christian Social Party | 1,393,174 | 27.25 | 29 | –15 |
Party for Freedom and Progress | 1,114,428 | 21.80 | 22 | –1 |
People's Union | 513,342 | 10.04 | 9 | +5 |
FDF-RW | 308,859 | 6.04 | 5 | +4 |
Communist Party of Belgium | 271,586 | 5.31 | 2 | –1 |
Vanden Boeyants-Christian Social Party Kartel | 252,331 | 4.94 | 6 | New |
Red Lions | 45,097 | 0.88 | 0 | New |
Walloon Workers | 3,777 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
Pro-Peking Communists | 3,452 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
Kaganovemus | 2,694 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 |
ULS | 2,364 | 0.05 | 0 | New |
Flemish Communists | 801 | 0.02 | 0 | New |
Walloon Communists | 520 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
FU Pop | 495 | 0.01 | 0 | New |
Invalid/blank votes | 441,379 | – | – | – |
Total | 5,553,197 | 100 | 106 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 6,170,167 | 90.00 | – | – |
Source: Belgian Elections |
Belgium is a federal state with a multi-party political system, with numerous parties who factually have no chance of gaining power alone, and therefore must work with each other to form coalition governments.
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