1974 Belgian general election

General elections were held in Belgium on 10 March 1974.^[1] 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%.^[2] Elections were also held for the nine provincial councils, as well as for the Council of the German Cultural Community for the first time.

1974 Belgian general election

← 1971 10 March 1974 1977 →
212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
First party Second party Third party   Leader Edmond Leburton Leo Tindemans Frans Grootjans Party Socialist CVP Open Vld Leader since Candidate for PM Candidate for PM 1973 Last election 25 seats, 10.40%[a] 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   Leader Frans Van der Elst Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb André Lagasse Party VU cdH 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%
Results by constituency for the Chamber of Representatives
Government before election Leburton II BSP/PSB-CVP-PSC-PVV-PRL Government after election Tindemans I CVP-PSC-PVV-PRL

Results

Chamber of Representatives

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Belgian Socialist Party	1,314,796	25.00	59	+2
	Christian People's Party	1,222,646	23.25	50	+10
	Party for Freedom and Progress	798,818	15.19	30	+4
	People's Union	536,287	10.20	22	+1
	Christian Social Party	478,209	9.09	22	+7
	FDF–PDLP	301,303	5.73	14	New
	Walloon Rally	269,455	5.12	11	−1
	Communist Party of Belgium	107,481	2.04	2	New
	BSP–Red Lions	86,929	1.65	0	New
	Democratic and Progressive Union	58,527	1.11	2	+2
	All Power to the Workers	19,794	0.38	0	New
	United Feminist Party	18,511	0.35	0	New
	Party for the Middle Classes and Independents	9,184	0.17	0	New
	Party of German-speaking Belgians	8,700	0.17	0	New
	Walloon Liberal Party	6,846	0.13	0	New
	FDP	4,729	0.09	0	New
	Democratic and Progressive Union–New Democracy	3,623	0.07	0	New
	Rex Fr	2,764	0.05	0	New
	Return to Liège	1,810	0.03	0	New
	Kaganovemus	1,678	0.03	0	0
	SAP	1,445	0.03	0	New
	Diependale	1,229	0.02	0	New
	A74	979	0.02	0	New
	PRS	905	0.02	0	New
	Zwartberg	665	0.01	0	New
	Trotskyists	645	0.01	0	New
	Belgian Radical Union	389	0.01	0	New
	PUR	184	0.00	0	New
Total		5,258,531	100.00	212	0
Valid votes		5,258,531	92.07
Invalid/blank votes		453,108	7.93
Total votes		5,711,639	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,323,027	90.33
Source: Belgian Elections[3]

Senate

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
	Democratic and Progressive Union	60,400	1.16	0	0
	Party for Freedom and Progress (Wallonia)	21,782	0.42	0	New
	All Power to the Workers	16,744	0.32	0	New
	Party of German-speaking Belgians	15,624	0.30	0	New
	United Feminist Party	11,910	0.23	0	New
	Party for the Middle Classes and Independents	5,918	0.11	0	New
	Iependael	2,784	0.05	0	New
	Zwartberg	2,149	0.04	0	New
	Kaganovemus	1,903	0.04	0	0
	PMO–Belgian Radical Union	1,078	0.02	0	New
	A74	942	0.02	0	New
	Walloon Liberal Party	597	0.01	0	New
	PUR	156	0.00	0	New
	Other parties	2,255	0.04	0	–
Total		5,184,715	100.00	106	0
Valid votes		5,184,715	90.77
Invalid/blank votes		527,014	9.23
Total votes		5,711,729	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,323,027	90.33
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		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Social Party		46.90	12	–1
	Party of German-speaking Belgians		25.40	6	+3
	Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt		14.90	4	–2
	Belgian Socialist Party		12.10	3	0
	Other parties		15.10	0	–
Total				25	0
Source: PDG