BELGIAN ELECTIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 11

BELGIAN ELECTIONS

LIBERAL AND CATHOLIC . MAJORITY OF 10 FIRST WOMAN ELECTED Times Cable Reed. 12.45 p.m. BRUSSELS, Tues’. The Belgian elections resulted in the Catholics securing 76 seats, thus losing two. The Liberals secured 28 seats, gaining five, and the Socialists 72, lasing six. The smaller parties show minor changes. The Liberal-Catholic majority becomes 10, compared with seVen in the last Parliament. 'A Socialist woman candidate secured a seat at Liege. She -is the first woman to enter the Belgian Chamber.

The Belgian General Election took place last Sunday. There was a larger list of candidates than previously. The main contest was between the Conservatives and the divided Catholics, the Liberals and the Socialists. There aro IS7 seats in the House of Representatives. The state of parties in the last Parliament was: Catholics and Christian Democrats, 78: Liberals. 23: Socialists. 78; Flemish Separatists. 6: Communists, 2. The Catholic Party includes a right wing with Conservative tendencies and a left wing with democratic tendencies. The Catholics are divided on- the language question, but they present a united front for the defence „of common religious interests. In the Senate there are 153 seats not including the heir to the throne. The numbers in the last House were: Catholics. 70: Liberals, 23: Socialists. 60. Since the'war coalitions have ruled the country in lieu of government by one party.