Elections in Belgium
In Flanders, the Local Government Agency (Agentschap Binnenlands Bestuur) is tasked with this, while objections go to the Council for Election Disputes (Raad voor Verkiezingsbetwistingen).
[citation needed] Political campaigns in Belgium are relatively short, lasting only about one month, and there are restrictions on the use of billboards.
For all of their activities, campaigns included, the political parties have to rely on government subsidies and dues paid by their members.
A few weeks before the actual election, every Belgian older than 18 receives a voter invitation card with the details of where and when to vote.
They are automatically registered on the electoral rolls on reaching the age of 18 and are subject to compulsory voting.
The law of 17 November 2016 extended the right to vote for European Parliament elections to Belgians living in a non-EU member state.
This number gradually decreased following the accession of new member states to the European Union, the latest being Croatia in 2013.
Inhabitants of the six municipalities with language facilities in the Brussels Periphery (Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Wemmel and Wezembeek-Oppem) can opt to vote for French-speaking lists despite being in the Dutch language area, per article 168bis of the Belgian Constitution.
Previous to 2012, Brussels formed together with half of the province of Flemish Brabant the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency.
Unlike all other levels, the seats in the municipal councils are apportioned using the Imperiali method, which slightly favours larger parties to ensure more stable coalitions.
Vote counting is a very serious matter, to prevent voter fraud (that was committed in the early days of Belgian democracy[example needed]).
The objective of vote counting in Belgium's proportional system is to attribute a number of seats to candidates of different parties.
2 attribution calculation systems are in place, unlike all other levels, the seats in the municipal councils are attributed using the Imperiali method, while in all supra-local elections where the jurisdiction of the legislative council covers more than one electoral district (like the provincial, regional, federal or European elections) the D'Hondt method is used.
Binding referendums in Belgium are not legally possible because of the constitutional principle that the country's powers are exercised by the nation and not by the people.
In the 1990s though, new laws and eventually a constitutional amendment allowed for non-binding referendums on the municipal and provincial level.
The sixth Belgian state reform of 2011 foresees a constitutional change to allow for regional referendums as well; this has however not yet been done as of 2013.
