The Judicial Council of the Brussels Regional Parliament has declared the result of the municipal elections in Sint-Joost-ten-Node invalid. The decision means that voters there may have to go to the polls again. The current Mayor of Sint-Joost-ten-Node Emir Kir is suspected of electoral fraud.
At the municipal elections that were held on 13 October the incumbent mayor Emir Kir’s list won an absolute majority. However, the heads of the green, and socialist lists and Team Fouad Ahidar lodge a complaint against the result alleging electoral fraud. In addition to the Brussels public prosecutor's office has also opened an investigation into suspected fraud with proxy votes.
The politicians from the opposition parties allege that the proxy votes were “untraceable” at 2 of the 12 polling stations in Sint-Joost-ten-Node. In addition to this 226 of the 656 proxy vote forms that have been scruntinised also allegedly contained “errors” such as missing signatures.
The number of proxy votes cast in Sint-Joost is also strikingly large. 7.5% of the votes cast in the municipal elections in Sint-Joost-ten-Node were proxy votes. This compares with an average of 1.5% in the Brussels-Capital Region as a whole. Mr Kir has 8 days in which to appeal.