In a press release published on Monday morning, Ghent City Council said that 14.95% of people in Ghent that are aged 16 and over voted in Sunday’s referendum on affordable housing. The referendum was held after the action group “Te Duur” (too expensive) succeeded in collecting more than 27,000 signatures demanding a referendum.
Ghent
15% of those that were entitled to voted in Ghent referendum on affordable housing
Published:
The referendum was held after the action group “Te Duur” (too expensive) succeeded in collecting more than 27,000 signatures demanding a referendum. Those that took part in the referendum were asked to vote yes or no on two questions. 79.36% of those that voted voted “yes” to the first question “Municipal real estate should not be privatised. Do you agree?” 77.35% voted “yes” to the second question “Should the City of Ghent set up a public land bank to achieve the aim of 40% social housing within the city?”
The 14.95% participation rate is higher than the 12.4% participation rate initially given by the city authorities. In fact, 12.4% of all people in Ghent (including those under the age of 16) voted.
The referendum that wasn’t binding would only have been valid if more than 10% of those that were entitled to vote did so. In the end 33,203 people voted in Ghent on Sunday, which was more than 1 in 7 of those that were entitled to do so.