UAn undefinable number of voters (due to the abolition of compulsory voting in Flanders) must go to the polls this Sunday to elect the municipal councils of the country’s 581 entities, which will soon only be 565, as well as the 10 councils provincial. Added to this are some original features specific to Antwerp (district councils) and municipalities with facilities (CPAS councils).
In Flanders, the big unknown is the participation rate, because the obligation to vote is repealed at local level for the very first time. Potential voters are no longer “summoned”, but “invited” to come to the voting booth.
Who will vote?
There are just over 8 million Belgian voters (8,137,505) and 162,817 voters of foreign nationality (including 27,780 non-EU) who registered on time. This represents a little more than 15% of potential foreign voters who have decided to take the necessary steps to be able to vote.
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In several places, the election will make it possible to set up the first municipal council of a completely new entity. Even if the mergers are not yet effective, they have been anticipated and the voters of the entities called to merge into one vote for the same lists and for one and the same municipal council.
In Wallonia, this is the case of Bastogne and Bertogne, in anticipation of their merger on December 2. In Flanders, this is the case in 28 municipalities, which will officially merge on January 1 to form only 13. There will then no longer be 581 municipalities but 565.
