At least 1 in 5 Belgians have not yet decided who they will vote for on Sunday. That’s according to a survey carried out by researchers from 7 Belgian universities. Surprisingly there are still as many undecided voters as there were at the beginning of the election campaign.
18% of Flemings, 21% of Walloons and 16% of Brussels residents still don’t yet know who they will vote for on Sunday and the researchers say that is probably an underestimate. Jonas Lefevere of Antwerp University told VRT News that “About 1 in 5 of the Belgians surveyed, said that they didn’t know yet which party they will vote for. However, it could also be the case that the people who did name a party are actually still in doubt as well”.
“We know that 18% of Flemings either really don't yet know or are still very much in doubt about which party to vote for”.
Who are the undecided voters?
The researchers particularly wanted to know who the undecided voters are and why they are remaining undecided for so long. Jonas Lefevere told VRT News that “The research shows that they are not so much disaffected voters, but rather people that are interested in politics. They have sympathy for several parties and therefore are still unsure who they will vote for”.
While age doesn’t to play a role here, gender does. There are almost twice as many female as male voters that are still undecided. Many people remain undecided until the last few days of the campaign or even don’t decide who to vote for until polling day.
A big difference with the last elections in 2019 is that this time around more voters with low levels of academic attainment have already made up there mind on who to vote for.
“One possible explanation is the success of Vlaams Belang (far-right) and PVDA/PTB (far-left), 2 parties that score well among voters with low levels of academic attainment. This means that some of the undecided voters there were before the 2019 election may already have a clear preference now”.
No one big issue
It is also striking that the number of undecided voters hasn’t fallen much, if at all, compared to the beginning of the campaign. The researchers say that this confirms the results of previous studies in Belgium and in other countries, that show that undecided voters make up their minds very late, and often only in the last days before an election.
Furthermore, there has not been any one big issue that has dominated the campaign and no one party has been able to dominate the agenda during the debates and discussions of the past few weeks. This combined with a lack of interest in politics on the part of some has led many voters to put of not making a decision until the final days, or even to wait until Sunday before deciding who to vote for.