The Flemish Home Affairs Minister Hilde Crevits (Christian democrat) has announced that she intends to modify the rules governing local elections that were in force for the first time when Flemings voted in the municipal and provincial elections last year. Ms Crevits says that she wants to put end to the “carousel” whereby the largest party has two weeks to form a coalition before the right to try and do so passes to the party with the next largest number of votes. The Flemish Home Affairs Minister believes that this makes matters “too complex”.
Ms Crevits has asked the Flemish Home AZffairs Department to evaluate the new rules that came into effect for the municipal and provincial elections in October 2024.
Among the measures introduced was the rule that the mayor of a municipality must always be the candidate from the party or parties that form a majority on the council that has the most preference votes. This should preferably be a candidate from the list that received the most votes. Ms Crevits believes that this is a good measure and that it should be retained.
While she still supports the principle of granting the most popular first shot at forming a new municipal coalition to the largest party, she believes that the carousel system whereby this right passes to the next biggest party/list if a coalition is not formed within 2 weeks should be reviewed. “This is a good democratic principle, as it's the list that came first that has the first opportunity to form a coalition. However, the aim is not for this to lead to further complexity. That's why I'm proposing to abolish the carousel system and grant exclusive initiative rights only to the largest list", the Flemish Home Affairs Minister explains
Ms Crevits also wants to open the debate on compulsory voting, simplify the proxy system and provide voters with alternative ways of casting their votes. “Because in a strong democracy, every vote counts.”