ELECTIONS HELD IN 1995
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| Chamber: | |
| Sénat-Senaat | |
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| 21 May 1995 | |
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| Elections were held for all the popularly chosen seats in the Senate following premature dissolution of this body on 12 April 1995. General elections had previously taken place in November 1991. | |
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| Following the previous general elections of November 1991, a centre-left coalition Government headed by Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene of the Flemish Christian Social Party (CVP) was formed in March.
The premature 1995 polling date was set on 20 February. Since this came shortly after an expectedly positive report of national economic growth in 1994, the scheduling was seen as a bid to benefit from the upswing in this sector, and as the Government’s search for a clear mandate before parliamentary debate on the 1996 budget with a view to pursuing its programme of economic and social security reforms. In the former sphere, reduction of unemployment, the budget deficit and the public debt were especially targeted. The ruling Flemish and Walloon (French) branches of the Christian Social (CVP and PSC) and Socialist (SP and PS) parties were mainly challenged, as in the past, by the Liberal Party (VLD and PRL), extreme right-wing parties (Vlaams Blok and National Front), and the Greens (Agalev and Ecolo). The campaign was generally lacklustre, with the opposition, among other things, accusing the governing circles of corruption in having accepted bribes from the Italian Agusta Helicopter company in return for lucrative defence contracts. Polling for the newly reduced (House down from 212 to 150 seats, Senate from 184 to 71) Parliament was held simultaneously with that for the country’s three regional assemblies (in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) pursuant to the constitutional amendments of 1993 which had established Belgium as a federal State. Altogether some 60 parties were in contention. Final results gave a renewed absolute majority (81 of 150 Representatives’ seats) to the centre-left coalition in power, as the right-wing parties failed to make the breakthrough opinion polls had predicted. For its part, the Flemish Liberal Party headed by Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, which favoured radical economic austerity measures, recorded slight gains. On 23 June, King Albert II designated the new Government, comprising the same partners as before. Besides Prime Minister Dehaene, the members of the new Cabinet included seven Dutch-speaking and seven French-speaking Ministers. |
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STATISTICS
| Round no 1 (21 May 1995): Elections results | |
| Number of registered electors | 7,199,440 |
| Voters | 6,562,107 (91.15%) |
| Blank or invalid ballot papers | 569,782 |
| Valid votes | 5,992,325 |
| Round no 1: Distribution of seats | ||||
| Political Group | Total | Directly elected | Communities | Co-opted |
| Socialist Party - Walloon (PS) | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Socialist Party - Flemish (SP) | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| Christian Social Party - Flemish (CVP) | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| Christian Social Party - Walloon (PSC) | 7 | 3 | 3* | 1 |
| Liberal Party - Flemish (VLD) | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Liberal Party - Walloon (PRL) | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| Greens - Walloon (Ecolo) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Greens - Flemish (Agalev) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Vlaams Blok | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Volksunie | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Comments: | |
| * Including one German-speaking member | |
| Distribution of seats according to sex: | |
| Men: | 55 |
| Women: | 16 |
| Distribution of seats according to age: | ||
| 30-40 years | 10 | |
| 40-50 years | 21 | |
| 50-60 years | 28 | |
| 60-70 years | 11 | |
| Over 70 years | 1 | |
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| Teaching | 20 | |
| Civil servants | 16 | |
| Lawyers | 14 | |
| Private sector managers | 7 | |
| Senators with no other background | 5 | |
| Doctors | 3 | |
| Private sector employees | 3 | |
| Others | 3 | |
Copyright © 1995 Inter-Parliamentary Union