The Electoral Disputes Board will not be investigating allegations of electoral fraud during the municipal elections in the East Flemish town of Ninove. No party that stood in the municipal elections in the town on 13 October has lodged an appeal. This means that the result stands. Meanwhile, however, an investigation by the public prosecutor's office into the active procurement of proxy votes and forgery is still ongoing.
No party has lodged an appeal alleging electoral fraud in Ninove: far-right’s victory is confirmed
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The local branch of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA has said in a press statement that it won’t be lodging an appeal. Earlier this week the two other lists that stood in Ninove on 13 October did the same. The Board can only open an investigation if a candidate lodges an appeal. Candidates have until Friday to do so. However, if an individual candidate were to lodge an appeal they would be going against the party line.
The parties had considered lodging an appeal after allegations emerged of possible proxy vote fraud. Guy D'haeseleer’s far-right Forza Ninove list won an absolute majority with 500 to spare.
On the day of the elections the East Flemish Prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the procurement of proxies and forgery. In Ninove 1,618 votes were cast by proxy. This is proportionally much higher than elsewhere.
Public prosecutor's office’s investigation ongoing
The Flemish nationalists and the liberal/Christian democrat Positive Ninove list say that the judicial investigation is complicating the filing of an objection with the Electoral Disputes Board.
In a press release the Flemish nationalists say that “The list of people who voted by proxy is no longer in the election file because all documents were seized by the public prosecutor's office. The public prosecutor's office has indicated that it would be possible for us to inspect the documents would not be possible as this would breach the secrecy of what is a criminal investigation”.
Positief Ninove is asking the Flemish government to review the regulations that govern the organisation of local elections. “Only once the public prosecutor has completed their investigation should the deadline for filing a complaint with the Council for Electoral Disputes expire”, outgoing Mayor for Positief Ninove Tania De Jonge said.
The East Flanders public prosecutor's office has refrained from comment on the case.