Italian general election, 1968

Italian general election, 1968

← 1963 19 May 1968 1972 →
All 630 seats in the Italian Chamber of Deputies 316 seats were needed for a majority in the Chamber 315 (of the 322) seats in the Italian Senate
Turnout	92.8%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Mariano Rumor Luigi Longo Francesco De Martino Party Christian Democracy Communist Party Unified Socialist Party Leader since 1964 1964 1963 Leader's seat IX - West Veneto IV - Milan XI - Romagna Last election 260 & 129 seats, 38.3% 166 & 84 seats, 25.3% 87 & 44 seats Seats won 266 (H) 135 (S) 177 (H) 101 (S) 91 (H) 46 (S) Seat change 9 27 41 Popular vote 12,441,553 8,557,404 4,605,832 Percentage 39.1% 26.9% 14.5% Swing 0.8% 1.6% 6.0%
Legislative election results map. Light Blue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Gray denotes those with an Autonomist plurality.
Prime Minister before election Aldo Moro Christian Democracy Elected Prime Minister Giovanni Leone Christian Democracy

Aldo Moro
Christian Democracy

Giovanni Leone
Christian Democracy

General elections were held in Italy on May 19, 1968.Democrazia Cristiana (DC) remained stable around 38% of the votes. They were marked by a victory of the Communist Party (PCI) passing from 25% of 1963 to c. 30% at the Senate, where it presented jointly with the new Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP), which included members of Socialist Party (PSI) which disagreed the latter's alliance with DC. PSIUP gained c. 4.5% at the Chamber. The Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) presented together as the Unified PSI–PSDI, but gained c. 15%, far less than the sum of what the two parties had obtained separatedly in 1963.

The pure party-list proportional representation had traditionally become the electoral system for the Chamber of Deputies. Italian provinces were united in 32 constituencies, each electing a group of candidates. At constituency level, seats were divided between open lists using the largest remainder method with Imperiali quota. Remaining votes and seats were transferred at national level, where they was divided using the Hare quota, and automatically distributed to best losers into the local lists.