1974 Belgian general election

1974 Belgian general election

10 March 1974
212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
First party Second party Third party   150x150px Leader Edmond Leburton Leo Tindemans Frans Grootjans Party Socialist CVP PVV Leader since Candidate for PM Candidate for PM 1973 Last election 25 seats, 10.40% 40 seats, 18.32% 16 seats, 7.42% Seats won 59 50 30 Seat change 34 10 14 Popular vote 1,401,725 1,222,646 798,818 Percentage 26.66% 23.25% 15.19% Swing 16.26% 4.91% 7.77%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   150x150px Leader Frans Van der Elst Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb André Lagasse Party VU PSC DéFI Leader since 1955 1972 1972 Last election 21 seats, 11.11% 15 seats, 6.20% 12 seats, 5.43% Seats won 22 22 14 Seat change 1 7 2 Popular vote 536,287 478,209 301,303 Percentage 10.20% 9.09% 5.73% Swing 0.91% 2.89% 0.30%
300px Colours denote the winning party in each electoral district (for the Chamber of Deputies). a In the 1971 election, the Belgian Socialist Party ran as its two separate language parts (owing to the recent establishment of two sub parties), however they ran as one under the Socialist prime minister for this election, with his Walloon section of the party's results showing here.
Government before election Leburton II BSP/PSB-CVP-PSC-PVV-PRL Government after election Tindemans I CVP-PSC-PVV-PRL

General elections were held in Belgium on 10 March 1974. The Belgian Socialist Party emerged as the largest faction in the Chamber of Representatives with 59 of the 212 seats. Voter turnout was 90.3%. Elections were also held for the nine provincial councils, as well as for the Council of the German Cultural Community for the first time.

Results

Senate

File:Belgium Senate 1974.svg
Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Belgian Socialist Party	1,301,722	25.11	27	New
Christian People's Party	1,219,811	23.53	27	New
Party for Freedom and Progress	755,694	14.58	16	+1
FDF-RW-PDLP	589,553	11.37	13	New
People's Union	545,215	10.52	10	New
Christian Social Party	430,512	8.30	10	New
Communist Party of Belgium	115,007	2.22	1	0
BSP–Red Lions	82,959	1.60	2	+2
UDP	60,400	1.16	0	0
Party for Liberty and Progress (Wallonia)	21,782	0.42	0	New
AMADA	16,744	0.32	0	New
Party of German-speaking Belgians	15,624	0.30	0	New
VFP	11,910	0.23	0	New
PMO	5,918	0.11	0	New
Iependael	2,874	0.05	0	New
Zwartberg	5,129	0.04	0	New
Kaganovemus	1,903	0.04	0	0
PMO/URB	1,078	0.02	0	New
A74	942	0.02	0	New
PLW	597	0.01	0	New
PUR	156	0.00	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	527,014	–	–	–
Total	5,711,729	100	106	0
Source: Belgian Elections

Council of the German Cultural Community

In this election, the new Council of the German Cultural Community (Rat der deutschen Kulturgemeinschaft) was directly elected for the first time; members of the council had been appointed a year earlier. The council is the precursor to the Parliament of the German-speaking Community.

Party	1974		1973	diff.
	perc.	seats	seats	seats
Christian Social Party (CSP)	46.9%	12	13	-1
Party of German-speaking Belgians (PJU-PDB)	25.4%	6	3	+3
Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF)	14.9%	4	6	-2
Socialist Party (SP)	12.1%	3	3	=
Others	0.7%	0	0	=
Total	100.0	25	25	0