One of them is by law allocated to the German-speaking electoral college and the remaining ones are allocated to the Dutch-speaking and to the French-speaking electoral college in accordance with a population formula, giving them respectively twelve and eight seats, as in 2014.

[3] Voters could only vote on the lists depending on the language area they live in.

This means that in the bilingual arrondissement of Brussels-Capital, voters could choose whether to vote for the Dutch-speaking or for the French-speaking electoral college.

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over and residing in Belgium were obligated to participate in the election.

The law of 17 November 2016 extended this right to Belgians living in a non-EU member state, which was already possible for federal elections.