HOW TO VOTE in Belgium

The European elections will be held in Belgium on 26 May 2019. Anyone aged 18 or over can cast a vote. It’s also possible to vote by proxy or abroad if certain conditions are met. Voting is compulsory for Belgian citizens.

The elections take place on Sunday 26 May 2019 in Belgium. There is an official website of the federal Ministry of Home Affairs on the elections (available in French, German and Dutch)

There is also a special website for EU voters (in all of the EU’s official languages) with link to the official announcement on the legal procedures to follow from the minister (in French and Dutch).

Voters in Belgium, except if they stay abroad, have to vote in a designated polling station in the municipality where they have their official home address. Every municipality has at least one polling station.

In Belgium you have to be at least 18 to vote.

If you are a Belgian citizen, you do not need to register in advance, as this is done automatically by the authorities. However, if you have changed your home address recently, we advise you to check with the municipal authorities to see whether your registration on the voting lists is correct.

If you are a citizen of an EU country and you want to cast your vote in the EU-elections for a candidate in Belgium, you have to register in your municipality before 28 February. Check for the details the website for EU-voters.

To register you have to take up contact with the municipal authorities of the city or village where you live. This can be done by e-mail.

You have to be in possession of your ID-card and the letter of the municipal administration calling you up to come to vote to that specific polling station.

No, in Belgium it is not possible to vote by mail, except if you live abroad.

Online voting is not possible in Belgium.

Yes, it is possible in Belgium. The forms can be obtained via the municipal administration.

Yes, you can, but you have to register to vote by 28 February 2019 at the very latest.

Voters will elect 21 Parliament members in 2019, the same number as in the 2014 elections.

In Belgium there are three constituencies, based on the regional structures of the linguistic communities. The constituencies are the following:

The Flemish Community (12 seats): Flanders region and the Brussels voters who opt to vote for candidates on the Flemish lists (the first choice to be made in the polling booth in Brussels itself). Voters in six municipalities around Brussels with a recognised French-speaking minority can opt to chose for a vote among the candidates of the French Community.
The French Community (8 seats): Wallonia region (without the German community) and the Brussels voters who opt to vote for candidates on the French lists.
The German Community (1 seat).

Candidacies are only possible in one community.

Political parties have to clear at least 5 % of the votes in order to be elected to the Parliament. In practice, as in the Flemish Community only 12 seats are allocated, and in the French Community only 8, the implicit threshold is higher in both districts.

Under EU law, all countries must use voting systems that ensure proportional representation, which means that the number of elected members from each party depends on the share of electoral votes obtained by the party.

In Belgium you can only vote for one party in the same election. You cast a vote in the box above the party-list (saying you agree with the order of candidates) or you cast your vote on the boxes behind one or more individual candidates on that list (saying you want the change the order of the list). List-votes go to the first candidate on the list (and to the second when the first has reached his or her quota, etcetera…).

The total number of ballot forms casted for each party is the number on which the seats distribution is calculated. Once those seats have been attributed to each party, the number of preferential votes (including the re-distributed list votes) indicates which individual candidate on the list is elected.

The participating parties and the number of their list (which will determine the ranking of the lists on the ballot) will be announced on the 22nd of March 2019. The parties themselves have to publicize the candidacies, via websites, brochures and other tools at their disposal.

How can I vote in other countries?

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