General elections were held in Italy on 28 April 1963, to select the Fourth Republican Parliament. It was the first election with a fixed number of MPs to be elected, as decided by the second Constitutional Reform in February 1963. It was also the first election which saw the Secretary of Christian Democracy to refuse the office of Prime Minister after the vote, at least for six months, preferring to provisionally maintain his more influent post at the head of the party: this fact confirmed the transformation of Italian political system into a particracy, the secretaries of the parties having become more powerful than the Parliament and the Government.