Not only Flanders, but also Brussels witnessed an historically low turnout in Sunday’s local elections. This is confirmed by research conducted by political scientist Emilie van Haute (Francophone Free University of Brussels ULB) and VRT NEWS. Despite compulsory attendance of a polling place, 1 in 5 voters did not show up. Moreover, non-Belgian residents who want to vote have to register beforehand, but only a minority do so. Taking this group into account, the turnout in Brussels boroughs of Sint-Gillis and Elsene drops below 50 per cent.
Only 1 in 6 non-Belgians bothered to register to vote for the local elections in Brussels
Colin Clapson
Published:
First, we need to look at the total number of citizens who are allowed to cast their vote, the so-called ‘eligible voters’. First of all, these are all residents with Belgian nationality who are over 18 years old. They are still subject to compulsory attendance in Brussels.
Specific to the Brussels municipalities is the particularly large number of residents who do not have Belgian nationality. They too can vote for municipal councils, if they are 18 or over and are registered with the municipality in question. Non-EU nationals also have to be able to show they have resided in Belgium legally for more than 5 years.
In total, Brussels municipalities counted 241,417 EU residents and 69,383 non-EU residents who met these conditions for the municipal elections. Taken together, they make up no less than a third of all of those entitled to vote in Brussels.
Only they do have to register to vote beforehand. And there is the rub: only 1 in 6 non-Belgian residents actually did so. As a result, even before the elections, the electorate consisted of only 71.4 per cent of all those entitled to vote.
‘Registration to vote was possible until the end of July. In addition, a lot of non-Belgians have not lived in Brussels for long, which is not ideal for their social and political integration,’ explains Van Haute. ‘Some municipalities do not inform non-Belgians sufficiently. And political parties also make too little effort to reach out to these voters.’
In Elsene and Sint-Gillis, where the turnout dipped below 50 per cent, there's a relatively large number of people with other European nationalities. These include many highly educated expats!
Some of them are only in Brussels for a few months or years. ‘That problem also presents itself among Belgian voters,’ says Van Haute. ‘There is very high mobility in Brussels. A study shows that more than 2 out of 3 residents only moved into their municipality in the past 5 years’.
Together these various elements reveal why turnout in Brussels was so low even though attendance of a polling pace remained mandatory for Belgians.
Turnout in Brussels: the darker the borough, the lower the turnout.