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Elections in Belgium are organised for legislative bodies only, and not for executive functions. Direct elections take place for the European Parliament, the Chamber of Representatives, the Parliaments of the Regions, the Parliaments of the Communities, the provincial councils, the municipal councils and the councils of Districts of Antwerp. Voting is mandatory and all elections use proportional representation which in general requires coalition governments.

The method of election, the elected bodies, and the political party system have changed drastically since the founding of Belgium in 1830. At first, there were only municipal, provincial and national elections with only few people being able to vote on the national level. Over time, voting rights were extended and eventually made compulsory. In the second half the 20th century, political parties split along linguistic lines and the number of parties increased. In 1979, the European Parliament became a directly elected supranational body and as a result of the federalisation of the country, the Communities and Regions of Belgium also got their own legislatures which have been directly elected since 1993.

Organisation of elections

The Federal Government is responsible for organising all non-local elections, being the elections for the community and regional parliaments, the federal parliament and the European Parliament in Belgium. The Elections Directorate of the Federal Public Service Interior is tasked with this.

Since 2001, the Regional Governments (Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia) are responsible for organising all local elections, being the elections for the municipal councils, provincial councils, district councils and OCMW/CPAS councils. In Flanders, the Local Government Agency (Agentschap Binnenlands Bestuur) is tasked with this, while objections go to the Council for Election Disputes (Raad voor Verkiezingsbetwistingen).

Election method

Ballot for communal election in 2012 in Walcourt.

Belgium has a multi-party system, with numerous political parties in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Several months before an election, each party forms a list of candidates for each district. Parties are allowed to place as many candidates on their "ticket" as there are seats available. The formation of the list is an internal process that varies with each party. The place on the list influences the election of a candidate, but its influence has diminished since the last electoral reform.

Political campaigns in Belgium are relatively short, lasting only about one month, and there are restrictions on the use of billboards. For all of their activities, campaigns included, the political parties have to rely on government subsidies and dues paid by their members.

Since no single party holds an absolute majority, after the election the strongest party or party family will usually create a coalition with some of the other parties to form the government.

Voting is compulsory in Belgium, with more than 90% of the population participating. In 2021, voting for the local elections (municipal and province) was made voluntary from the 2024 elections.

Belgian voters are given five options when voting. They may—

• Vote for a list as a whole, thereby showing approval of the order established by the party they vote for
• Vote for one or more individual candidates belonging to one party, regardless of his or her ranking on the list. This is a "preference vote"
• Vote for one or more of the "alternates (substitutes)"
• Vote for one or more candidates, and one or more alternates, all of the same party
• Vote invalid or blank so no one receives the vote

Voting in Belgium is done by paper voting or electronic voting on a computer depending on the place of voting. A few weeks before the actual election, every Belgian older than 18 receives a voting card with the details of where and when to vote. The voting cards are sent by the municipal administration to all of the municipality's inhabitants based on the national population register. Voting bureaus are usually in schools. On polling day, always a Sunday, a volunteer at the voting bureau checks the voter in. After taking the voter's electronic identity card and voting card, the volunteer issues a magnetic card to operate the voting machine. After the voter has finished, the volunteer verifies that the magnetic card was used to cast a valid vote, then returns the voter's ID and voting card, now stamped as proof of having voted.

Voters

Voters are Belgian citizens over the age of 18 and residing in Belgium. They are automatically registered on the electoral rolls on reaching the age of 18 and are subject to compulsory voting.

EU citizens aged 18 or older may register to vote in Belgium for European and municipal elections, a right established by European treaties. Non-EU citizens may register to vote in Belgium for municipal elections only, if living in Belgium for at least five years; this right was introduced in 2004 after extensive political debate. Belgian citizens living abroad may register to vote in a diplomatic or consular post in their country of residence, to vote for European and federal elections. For all of these groups, registration is not compulsory, but once registered, the person is theoretically subject to compulsory voting.

The law of 17 November 2016 extended the right to vote for European Parliament elections to Belgians living in a non-EU member state. On 26 August 2016, the cabinet also approved to extend the right to vote for Belgians living abroad in regional elections; however, this change is subject to approval by special majority in parliament, causing the measure to stall. Proposals to grant the right to vote from 16 years old for municipal elections were voted down, respectively in Flanders in 2017 and in Wallonia in 2018.

In 2021, voting for the municipal and provincial elections was made voluntary, starting from the 2024 elections.

Levels of election

Local elections

10 provinces and 589 municipalities

Starting with the 2006 local elections, these elections are organised by the three Regions (Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia). These elections still coincide, with legislatures of 6 years. The last local elections were the October 2018 elections.

Provincial elections

The Flemish and Walloon Region both have five provinces each. These ten have directly elected provincial councils. Both regions decreased the number of provincial councillors starting with the 2012 elections.

Municipal elections

All three regions have municipalities with municipal councils. Unlike all other levels, the seats in the municipal councils are apportioned using the Imperiali method, which slightly favours larger parties to ensure more stable coalitions.

District elections

The largest cities in Belgium have the possibility of installing urban districts. Only the city of Antwerp made use of this, which consequently has nine districts with their own directly elected district councils in addition to the municipal council of Antwerp.

Vote counting and seat attribution

The objective of elections in Belgium is to elect the members or a legislative council, from the Chamber of Representatives of the Federal Parliament to the local municipal council. The Belgian system does not elect members of the executive or the judicial branch. Vote counting is a very serious matter, to prevent voter fraud (that was committed in the early days of Belgian democracy). The objective of vote counting in Belgium's proportional system is to attribute a number of seats to candidates of different parties. 2 attribution calculation systems are in place, unlike all other levels, the seats in the municipal councils are attributed using the Imperiali method, while in all supra-local elections where the jurisdiction of the legislative council covers more than one electoral district (like the provincial, regional, federal or European elections) the D'Hondt method is used. These systems are however made more complex by the use of different types of votes such as list or party vote, a single nominal vote or a compounded nominal vote, and a vote transfers between candidates of party using Imperiali quota or STV.

Referendums

Binding referendums in Belgium are not legally possible because of the constitutional principle that the country's powers are exercised by the nation and not by the people. Consequently, Belgium is a representative democracy, almost without any form of direct democracy.

The Constitution did neither allow for non-binding referendums, but in 1950 a referendum was organised anyway with the question whether King Leopold III should return to the throne. There were large regional differences in the results, and no national referendum has been held ever since.

In the 1990s though, new laws and eventually a constitutional amendment allowed for non-binding referendums on the municipal and provincial level. A 2005 constitutional change made the Regions responsible for these local referendums. They are however still rarely organised. The sixth Belgian state reform of 2011 foresees a constitutional change to allow for regional referendums as well; this has however not yet been done as of 2013.

Past elections

The latest federal elections took place on 26 May 2019.

Evolution of election results

The primary six Flemish political parties and their results for the House of Representatives (Kamer). From 1978 to 2014, in percentages for the complete 'Kingdom'.

See also

• Electronic voting in Belgium
• Political parties in Belgium
• Political parties in Flanders
• List of elections in Belgium
• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

References

External links

• Belgian Election Database in Dutch and in French
• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• NSD: European Election Database - Belgium publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1991-2010
• Flemish election results, Flemish government