The CD&V and Open VLD cartel list is given the right of initiative in Vilvoorde. The party leaves the Vooruit of outgoing mayor Hans Bonte far behind. The gap between the two lists is as high as 9.1 percent. Party leader Jo De Ro (CD&V/Open VLD) is also more popular than Bonte in preferential votes.
This marks the end of an era in Vilvoorde. Bonte has been mayor since 2013. The Ro can now set up a coalition with the N-VA, which has a majority in the municipal council.
Leuven
Mayor of Leuven Mohamed Ridouani (Vooruit) succeeds himself after a monster score. 41.7 percent of the votes is even better than the best score ever achieved by his predecessor Louis Tobback (40.5 percent). In Leuven, Vooruit is even short of an absolute majority in the municipal council, with 23 of the 47 seats.
Read more about the municipal elections
All other parties lose, but the victory came at the expense of Groen in particular, which saw its number of seats in the municipal council halved, from ten to five seats. CD&V, the other coalition partner in the outgoing board, is losing slightly, and a seat is also being lost.
Mohamed Ridouani. — © hsb
With this result, Ridouani still needs one coalition partner to govern Leuven for the next six years. N-VA party leader Zeger Debyser, who saw a seat lost for his party, has already asked Ridouani for talks about “a connecting coalition”, but he has always advocated a progressive government. That means a coalition without N-VA.
Have
In Tienen, Jonathan Holslag, professor of international politics at the VUB, provides a surprise. With his new Dare list, he seems to have become the largest party out of nowhere. With 1 office counted, his party achieved 29.5 percent.
Aarschot
According to the provisional results, in Aarschot there is a neck-and-neck race between Everyone Aarschot, the Open VLD cartel list and the socialists, and the Christian Democrats. Mayor Gwendolyn Rutten (Alleen Aarschot) currently has the longest end with 30.9 percent, but CD&V also has 29.2 percent.
Lubbeek
CD&V is in the lead in Bierbeek, Zoutleeuw and Tremelo. In Zoutleeuw, CD&V even rose sharply to a monster score of 69.5 percent of the votes cast. That is an increase of about 20 percentage points. In Lubbeek, Theo Francken’s N-VA is the largest, with a score of 38.3 percent.
Provincial council
In the provincial council, N-VA remains the largest party, with 25.4 percent of the votes according to the provisional results, ahead of CD&V, Vooruit and Vlaams Belang. The current deputation of N-VA, CD&V and Open VLD holds a majority, but alternatives are possible.
Municipal election results:
Results of provincial council elections:
