1978 Belgian general election
First party
Second party
Third party
Leader
Paul Vanden Boeynants
André Cools
Karel Van Miert
Party
CVP
PS
sp.a
Leader since
Candidate for PM
1978
1978
Last election
56 seats, 26.20%
New
New
Seats won
57
31
26
Seat change
1
New
New
Popular vote
1,447,112
689,876
684,976
Percentage
26.14%
12.46%
12.37%
Swing
0.06%
New
New
Fourth party
Fifth party
Sixth party
Leader
Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb
Willy De Clercq
André Damseaux
Party
cdH
Open Vld
PRLW
Leader since
1977
1977
1973
Last election
24 seats, 7.29%
17 seats, 8.54%
16 seats, 3.34%
Seats won
25
22
15
Seat change
1
5
1
Popular vote
560,440
573,387
256,685
Percentage
10.12%
10.36%
4.64%
Swing
2.83%
1.82%
1.30%
Seat distribution by constituency for the Chamber of Deputies.
General elections were held in Belgium on 17 December 1978.[1] The Christian People's Party emerged as the largest party, with 57 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 29 of the 106 seats in the Senate . Voter turnout was 94.8%.[2] Elections were also held for the nine provincial councils and for the Council of the German Cultural Community .
The snap elections were called after Prime Minister Leo Tindemans resigned over the Egmont pact , which would have transformed Belgium into a federal state. Vlaams Blok participated for the first time, which was formed out of disagreement within the People's Union over concessions in the Egmont pact.
Results [ ]
Chamber of Deputies [ ]
The primary six Flemish political parties and their results for the House of Representatives (Kamer). From 1978 to 2014, in percentages for the complete 'Kingdom'.
Party
Votes
%
Seats
+/–
Christian People's Party
1,447,112
26.14
57
+1
Belgian Socialist Party (Wallonia)
689,876
12.46
31
+31
Belgian Socialist Party (Flanders)
684,976
12.37
26
–1
Party for Freedom and Progress
573,387
10.36
22
+5
Christian Social Party
560,440
10.12
25
+1
People's Union
388,762
7.02
14
–6
Democratic Front of the Francophones
259,019
4.68
11
0
Party of Reforms and Freedom of Wallonia
256,685
4.64
15
–1
Communist Party of Belgium
180,234
3.26
4
+4
Walloon Rally
128,153
2.32
4
0
Vlaams Blok
75,635
1.37
1
+1
48,616
0.88
1
+1
AMADA/TPO
43,483
0.79
0
New
PL
41,460
0.75
0
New
PRLW /PRF
31,280
0.57
0
0
Belgian Socialist Party (Luxembourg)
30,222
0.55
1
New
Ecolo
21,224
0.38
0
0
PLW
9,861
0.18
0
New
Party of German-speaking Belgians
9,032
0.16
0
0
ECOLOG
8,360
0.15
0
0
Walloon Rally (Luxembourg)
6,493
0.12
0
New
AGALEV
5,556
0.10
0
0
ECOPOL
3,922
0.07
0
New
LSDP
3,678
0.07
0
New
BNP-PNB
3,465
0.06
0
New
LRT
2,597
0.05
0
0
PLF
2,313
0.04
0
New
PPB
2,123
0.04
0
New
UDP
1,843
0.03
0
New
GROEN
1,761
0.03
0
New
PFU
1,686
0.03
0
0
PF-ECO
1,512
0.03
0
New
KAGANO
1,376
0.02
0
0
PVCM
993
0.02
0
New
PFN
729
0.01
0
New
LP-PL
698
0.01
0
New
PDE
375
0.01
0
New
PDRT
311
0.01
0
New
Invalid/blank votes
507,058
–
–
–
Total
6,042,689
100
212
0
Source: Belgian Elections
Senate [ ]
Party
Votes
%
Seats
+/–
Christian People's Party
1,420,777
25.93
29
+1
Belgian Socialist Party (Wallonia)
685,307
12.51
17
–2
Belgian Socialist Party (Flanders)
678,776
12.39
13
+1
Party for Freedom and Progress
572,535
10.45
11
+2
Christian Social Party
535,939
9.78
12
+1
People's Union
384,562
7.02
7
–3
Party of Reforms and Freedom of Wallonia -PL
330,155
6.03
6
-1
Democratic Front of the Francophones
266,713
4.87
7
New
Communist Party of Belgium
182,711
3.33
1
0
Walloon Rally
123,794
2.26
2
0
Vlaams Blok
80,809
1.47
0
New
51,571
0.94
0
New
AMADA/TPO
44,379
0.81
0
New
Ecolo
43,883
0.80
0
0
Belgian Socialist Party (Luxembourg)
30,837
0.56
1
New
Party of German-speaking Belgians
11,148
0.20
0
0
PLW
11,081
0.2
0
New
Walloon Rally (Luxembourg)
6,659
0.12
0
New
RAL/LRT
3,744
0.07
0
New
LSDP
3,239
0.06
0
New
PPB
2,804
0.05
0
New
PLF
2,640
0.05
0
New
UDP
2,221
0.04
0
New
PFU
2,045
0.04
0
New
PCR
917
0.02
0
New
Invalid/blank votes
565,299
–
–
–
Total
6,044,545
100
106
0
Source: Belgian Elections
References [ ]
^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook , p289 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p291