Elections in Belgium

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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 bicameral Federal Parliament, the Parliaments of the Communities and Regions, the provincial councils, the municipal councils and a few district councils. 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.

Election method

Belgian election districts

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; more than 90% of the population participates. Belgian voters are given five options when voting. They may—

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 to vote. 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.

Levels of election

European elections

Belgian voters elect 21 members to the European Parliament. This number gradually decreased following the accession of new member states to the European Union, the latest being Croatia in 2013. Direct elections take place since 1979.

There are three constituencies, organised by linguistic community:

Constituency 1979 & 1984 & 1989 1994 & 1999 2004 2009 2014
Dutch-speaking electoral college
13 / 24
14 / 25
14 / 24
13 / 22
12 / 21
French-speaking electoral college
11 / 24
10 / 25
9 / 24
8 / 22
8 / 21
German-speaking electoral college
1 / 25
1 / 24
1 / 22
1 / 21

Federal elections

Belgium elects its bicameral federal legislature, the Federal Parliament (Federaal Parlement/Parlement fédéral/Föderales Parlament).

Elections for the Federal Parliament are normally held every five years, coinciding with the European (and consequently also regional) elections. Early elections are possible, after which the legislature lasts until the next European election. Before the sixth Belgian state reform, the term was four years without any link to the other elections.

There are eleven constituencies coinciding with the ten provinces and the Brussels-Capital Region. Previous to 2012, Brussels formed together with half of the province of Flemish Brabant the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency.

Number of seats by constituency:

Constituency 2002–2012 2012–present
Antwerp
24 / 150
East Flanders
20 / 150
Hainaut
19 / 150
18 / 150
West Flanders
16 / 150
Brussels-Capital Region
15 / 150
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde
22 / 150
Flemish Brabant
15 / 150
Leuven
7 / 150
Liège
15 / 150
Limburg
12 / 150
Namur
6 / 150
Walloon Brabant
5 / 150
Luxembourg
4 / 150

Regional elections

Since the 1993 state reform, the Parliaments of the federated entities (Communities and Regions) are directly elected with elections always coinciding with European Parliament elections (thus with fixed terms of five years). Previously, these Parliaments consisted of the federal representatives elected in the respective region.

The Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, the Brussels Regional Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community are directly elected. The Parliament of the French Community consists of all members of the Walloon Parliament as well as 19 members chosen by the French-speaking members of the Brussels Regional Parliament.

Flemish Parliament
Constituency 2004–present
Antwerp
33 / 124
East Flanders
27 / 124
West Flanders
22 / 124
Flemish Brabant
20 / 124
Limburg
16 / 124
Brussels Capital Region
6 / 124

Walloon Parliament
Constituency 2014–present
Liège
13 / 75
Charleroi
9 / 75
Nivelles
8 / 75
Namur
7 / 75
Tournai-Ath-Mouscron
7 / 75
Verviers
6 / 75
Mons
5 / 75
Soignies
4 / 75
Dinant-Philippeville
4 / 75
Huy-Waremme
4 / 75
Thuin
3 / 75
Arlon-Marche-Bastogne
3 / 75
Neufchâteau-Virton
2 / 75

Brussels Regional Parliament
Constituency 1989-1999 2004–present
French-language list
75 / 75
72 / 89
Dutch-language list
17 / 89


Parliament of the French Community
Composition 1995–present
All members of the Walloon Parliament
75 / 94
Appointed from French language members
of the Brussels Regional Parliament
19 / 94

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 2012 elections; the next ones are in 2018 unless a Region changes its electoral law by then.

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 quota, 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.

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 referenda, 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 referenda on the municipal and provincial level. A 2005 constitutional change made the Regions responsible for these local referenda. They are however still rarely organised. The sixth Belgian state reform of 2011 foresees a constitutional change to allow for regional referenda as well; this has however not yet been done as of 2013.

Past elections

The latest federal elections took place on 25 May 2014, coinciding with the European and regional elections.

2014 federal election

 Summary of the 25 May 2014 Belgian Chamber of Representatives election results
← 2010 • 2014 • 2019 →
Party Leader(s) Votes % +/– E.c. % Seats +/–
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) Bart De Wever 1,366,414 20.26 2.86 Increase 32.22
33 / 150
6 Increase
Socialist Party (PS) Elio Di Rupo 787,165 11.67 2.05 Decrease 31.43
23 / 150
3 Decrease
Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) Wouter Beke 783,060 11.61 0.77 Increase 18.47
18 / 150
1 Increase
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vld) Gwendolyn Rutten 659,582 9.78 1.17 Increase 15.55
14 / 150
1 Increase
Reformist Movement (MR) Charles Michel 650,290 9.64 0.31 Increase 25.96
20 / 150
2 Increase
Socialist Party–Differently (sp.a) Bruno Tobback 595,486 8.83 0.36 Decrease 14.04
13 / 150
0 Steady
Green (Groen) Wouter Van Besien 358,947 5.32 0.94 Increase 8.46
6 / 150
1 Increase
Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) Benoît Lutgen 336,281 4.99 0.59 Decrease 13.43
9 / 150
0 Steady
Workers' Party (PTB–GO!/PVDA+)


Peter Mertens
PVDA+
PTB–GO!
251,289
118,246
132,685
3.72
1.76
1.97
2.17 Increase
3.24
5.31
2 / 150


Increase 2


Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) Gerolf Annemans 247,746 3.67 4.07 Decrease 5.84
3 / 150
9 Decrease
Ecolo Olivier Deleuze & Emily Hoyos 222,551 3.30 1.50 Decrease 8.89
6 / 150
2 Decrease
Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) Olivier Maingain 121,403 1.80 new 4.85
2 / 150
2 Increase
People's Party (Parti Populaire) Mischaël Modrikamen 102,599 1.51 0.24 Increase 4.10
1 / 150
0 Steady
Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD) Jean-Marie Dedecker 28,414 0.42 1.88 Decrease 0.67
0 / 150
1 Decrease
Others (parties that received less than 1% of the overall vote) 233,805 3.47
0 / 150
0 Steady
Valid votes 6,745,059 94.24
Blank and invalid votes 412,439 5.76
Totals 7,157,498 100.00
150 / 150
0 Steady
Electorate and voter turnout 8,001,278 89.45 0.23 Increase
Source: Federal Portal − Chamber Elections 2014
Notes:
1) E.c. = electoral college (Dutch- and French-speaking)

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'.

Results

Flemish elections
Year CVP
CD&V
VB SP
SP.A
VLD VU
VU-ID
N-VA
LDD AGALEV
GROEN
UF PVDA Others
1995 regional 26.78 12.33 19.45 20.18 8.96 7.08 1.17 0.58
1999 regional 22.09 15.54 15.00 22.04 9.25 11.62 0.94 0.61
2004 regional 26.09 24.15 19.66 19.79 * 7.60 1.07 0.56
2007 federal 29.6 19.0 16.3 18.8 * 6.5 6.3
2009 regional 22.86 15.28 15.27 14.99 13.06 7.62 6.77 1.15 1.04
2010 federal 17.60 12.60 14.99 14.02 28.23 3.74 7.11 1.3
2014 federal 18.7 5.9 14.2 15.7 32.6 0.7 8.6 2.8

See also

External links

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