1971 Belgian general election

1971 Belgian general election

← 1968 7 November 1971 1974 →

All 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Jos Van Eynde [nl]
Edmond Leburton
Gaston Eyskens Pierre Descamps
Party Socialist CVP PVV-PLP
Last election 27.10%, 59 seats 20.87%, 47 seats
Seats won 57 40 34
Seat change Decrease 2 New Decrease 13
Popular vote 1,335,730 967,701 865,655
Percentage 25.29% 18.32% 16.39%
Swing Decrease 1.81pp New Decrease 4.48pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Frans Van der Elst Robert J. Houben
Party VU PSC
Last election 9.79%, 20 seats
Seats won 21 15
Seat change Increase 1 New
Popular vote 586,917 327,393
Percentage 11.11% 6.20%
Swing Increase 1.32pp New

Results by constituency for the Chamber of Representatives

Government before election

G. Eyskens V
CVP-PSC-BSP/PSB

Government after election

G. Eyskens V
CVP-PSC-BSP/PSB

General elections were held in Belgium on 7 November 1971.[1] The result was a victory for the Christian People's Party, which won 40 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 34 of the 106 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 91.5%.[2] Elections to the nine provincial councils were also held.

The linguistic issues led to the splitting of the major parties into separate Flemish and Francophone parties. Consequently the election returned a very fragmented parliament.

The election followed the first state reform, with the creation of three cultural communities. The newly elected members of parliament would thus also serve in the newly established cultural councils.

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p289 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p291