1918 Danish Folketing election

Folketing elections were held in Denmark on 22 April 1918,[2] the first in which women could vote. The result was a victory for Venstre, which won 45 of the 180 seats in the Folketing, which had been expanded from 114 to 140 seats. Voter turnout was 75.5%.[3]

1918 Danish Folketing election

22 April 1918
All 140 seats to the Folketing 71 seats were needed for a majority
Leader Klaus Berntsen Thorvald Stauning Carl Theodor Zahle Party Venstre Social Democrats Social Liberals Last election 43 seats 32 seats 31 seats Seats won 45 39 32 Seat change 2 7 1 Popular vote 269,646 262,796 189,521 Percentage 29.4% 28.7% 20.7%   Leader Emil Piper ? Party Conservative Industry Last election 8 seats[1] New Seats won 22 1 Seat change 14 1 Popular vote 167,743 11,934 Percentage 18.3% 1.3%
Prime Minister before election Carl Theodor Zahle Social Liberals Elected Prime Minister Carl Theodor Zahle Social Liberals

Electoral system

The Folketing was elected by a mixture of proportional representation in Copenhagen and first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies in the rest of the country. Outside of Copenhagen there were 20 regional levelling seats in addition to three national levelling seats, which were intended make the results more proportional.

The 1918 elections were the only ones in Danish history to feature this mixed system.[4][5] Future elections would be entirely using proportional representation with the single-member districts not affecting the party-level results.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Venstre	269,646	29.4	45	+2
Social Democratic Party	262,796	28.7	39	+7
Danish Social Liberal Party	189,521	20.7	32	+1
Conservative People's Party	167,743	18.3	22	+14
Industry List	11,934	1.3	1	New
New Right	4,764	0.5	0	New
Voters of 1918	4,407	0.5	0	New
Socialist Workers Party	1,410	0.1	0	New
Independent Social Democracy	1,086	0.1	0	New
Independents	3,622	0.4	1	0
Invalid/blank votes	3,468	–	–	–
Total	920,397	100	140	+26
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

1. As Højre.
2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p524 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
3. Nohlen & Stöver, p537
4. The Parliamentary Electoral System in Denmark Folketing
5. Adolph, Jensen (July 1918). "Rigsdagsvalgene i April-Maj 1918 med Suppleringsvalg i Tiden 1915-18". Danmarks Statistik.