General elections were held in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

on 23 May 1965. The result was a victory for the Christian Social Party, which won 77 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 44 of the 106 seats in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Voter turnout was 91.6%.Nohlen & Stöver, p291 Elections for the nine

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

councils were also held. The elections followed the implementation of the 1962 language laws. As a result, the Flemish nationalist People's Union made big gains, as well as the new Democratic Front of the Francophones which was founded as a response to the language laws. The election also followed the founding of the

Party for Freedom and Progress The Party for Freedom and Progress ( nl, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang; french: Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès; german: Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt, PVV-PLP) was a liberal political party in Belgium which existed from 1961 unti ...

, succeeding the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. The new party aimed to reach a broader voter base, in which it succeeded by more than doubling its number of seats. Despite both government parties losing seats, they retained their sizeable majority and continued governing.

Results

Chamber of Representatives

Senate

Constituencies

The distribution of seats among the electoral districts was as follows for the Chamber of Representatives. Seats were reapportioned among the districts due to population growth, which was stronger in Flanders than in Wallonia, and due to several municipalities having been changed to another province following the 1962 language laws. For example, the

Comines-Warneton Comines-Warneton (; nl, Komen-Waasten, ; pcd, Comène-Warneuton; vls, Koomn-Woastn; wa, Cômene-Varneton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2006, it had a total population of 17 ...

municipalities were transferred from Ypres (West Flanders) to the newly created

arrondissement of Mouscron The Arrondissement of Mouscron (; ) is a former arrondissement in the Walloon province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is not a judicial arrondissement. Its municipalities are a part of the Judicial Arrondissement of Tournai. The arrondissement was cr ...

(Hainaut), causing Ypres to lose one seat and Tournai-Ath-Mouscron to gain one seat.

References

{{Belgian elections 1965 elections in Belgium May 1965 events in Europe