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Folketing elections were held in Denmark on 22 April 1918,[1] the first in which women could vote. The result was a victory for Venstre, which won 45 of the 140 seats in the Folketing, which had been expanded from 114 to 140 seats. Voter turnout was 75.5%.[2]

Electoral system

The Folketing was elected by rural–urban proportional representation. Copenhagen had 24 members elected by party-list proportional representation using the d'Hondt system, while in the rest of the country 93 members (42 in the Danish Islands and 51 in Jutland) were elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting. There were a further 23 leveling seats to make the results more proportional.[3]

Of the 23 leveling seats, twenty (nine in the islands and eleven in Jutland) were allocated on a regional basis, and three (one in the islands and two in Jutland) were allocated based on the nationwide vote (including Copenhagen).[3] The allocation of candidates to leveling seats was based on a best-loser rule, using a form of Scorporo; in each single-member constituency a Hare quota of votes for the appropriate region was subtracted from the winner's votes and the remainders were pooled at a county level. The candidates with the highest proportion of the votes relative to the region's Hare quota were allocated the leveling seats.[3]

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

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Venstre269,64629.4145+2
Social Democratic Party262,79628.6639+7
Danish Social Liberal Party189,52120.6732+1
Conservative People's Party167,74318.2922New
Industry List11,9341.301New
New Right4,7640.520New
Voters of 19184,4070.480New
Socialist Workers Party1,4100.150New
Independent Social Democracy1,0860.120New
Independents3,6220.4010
Total916,929100.00140+26
Valid votes916,92999.62
Invalid/blank votes3,4680.38
Total votes920,397100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,218,90175.51
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p524 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p537
  3. ^ a b c Saby, R. S. (1919). "Danish Parliamentary Elections of 1918". American Political Science Review. 13 (4): 656–662. doi:10.2307/1944222. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1944222.
  4. ^ The Parliamentary Electoral System in Denmark Archived 2022-01-21 at the Wayback Machine Folketing
  5. ^ Adolph, Jensen (July 1918). "Rigsdagsvalgene i April-Maj 1918 med Suppleringsvalg i Tiden 1915-18". Danmarks Statistik.
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