Abstract

Until 1971 the Belgian Socialist Party was the only Belgian party that consulted its members on the composition of candidate-lists for the parliamentary elections. Internal pre-elections were organized for this purpose.Since 1971 however there is a clear trend to abandon this procedure and to make a party-congres the deciding factor.In 1971 and 1974 this trend became predominant in Flanders; it is now also clearly noticeable in Wallonia. Only one out of seventeen Dutch-speaking federations, and seven of the thirteen Frenchspeaking federations organized pre-elections. As they were held in the large federations which send large numbers of members to parliament, there are still more French-speaking candidates in parliament through pre-elections than through a congres appointed list.