Belgian Congo general election, 1960
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In order to create political institutions to govern the country after its independence from Belgium on June 30 1960, elections were held in Belgian Congo in May 1960.
A national Chamber of Representatives (137 members) was elected directly (only by males). In 26 districts, list-PR was used to distribute seats between lists and, within lists, seats were given to the candidates with the most personal votes. Six Provincial Assemblies (60, 70 or 90 members) were elected in the same manner, although their districts were smaller. In addition, 7 to 11 "customary chiefs and notables" were coopted (single non transferable vote) Every provincial assembly elected 14 senators: 3 to 5 among the "customary chiefs and notables" (single non transferable vote) and the rest by list-PR. The national president was elected in a common session of Chamber and Senate (2/3 majority). The national government was appointed by the president, but the first government was appointed by the Belgian king. It had to obtain the confidence of Chamber and Senate. The president (by majority) and 10 other members (single non transferable vote) of the provincial governments were elected by the provincial assemblies.
Only the two biggest parties presented themselves in more than one province:
- The MNC-L (Patrice Lumumba) had won the elections: with about a quarter of the seats it ended first. It obtained a majority in the Eastern province.
- The PNP, although second, was defeated as national party by the MNC-L. It was the favourite of the Belgians (parti des nègres payés, "party of paid negroes").
Every other party was based in only one province; their strongholds followed ethnic divisions:
- In the province of Léopoldville, PSA (Antoine Gizenga) narrowly defeated ABAKO (Joseph Kasa-Vubu).
- In the province of Katanga, CONAKAT (Moise Tshombé) narrowly defeated BALUBAKAT (Jason Sendwe).
- In the province of Kivu, CEREA (Anicet Kashamura) won but didn't obtain a majority; MNC-L came second.
- In the province of Kasaï, MNC-L and MNC-K (Albert Kalonji, Joseph Iléo and Cyrille Adoula) fought a duel over the first place. MNC-L could count on two smaller parties (UNC and COAKA).
- In the Eastern province, MNC-L won a clear majority; the PNP was its only adversairy.
- In the province of the Equator, parties were very weak, but PUNA (Jean Bolikango) and UNIMO (Justin Bomboko) could be called the local parties.
In the national parliament, Lumumba could count on a coalition of (in order of loyalty) MNC-L, UNC and COAKA (Kasaï), CEREA (Kivu), PSA (Léopoldville) and BALUBAKAT (Katanga). It was opposed by PNP, MNC-K (Kasaï), ABAKO (Léopoldville), CONAKAT (Katanga), PUNA and UNIMO (Equator) and RECO (Kivu).
As part of a deal, on June 24 1960, Kasa-Vubu was elected president and the Lumumba government obtained the confidence of Chamber and Senate.
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