Voting rights in Belgium

[1] EU citizens from the age of 18 living in Belgium can register to vote in European and municipal elections.

[1][2] Non-EU citizens can only register to vote in municipal elections if they have lived in Belgium for at least five years.

[4] Belgian citizens living abroad can register at a diplomatic or consular post in their country of residence to vote in European and federal elections.

[10] In the beginning, the Belgian political landscape consisted only of Catholics and liberals, with no real developed party structure.

After bloody strikes in Wallonia and pressure from the liberal progressists and the socialists, General multiple voting rights were introduced in 1893 under the Beernaert government.

[15] The first elections under this system took place on October 14, 1894, with the recently founded Belgian Workers' Party entering parliament for the first time with 28 seats.

Liberals and socialists, despite the latter's support, feared that this would only strengthen the dominant position of Catholics because they believed that women were too much under the influence of the Church.

To reverse this situation, a system of affirmative action through quotas was introduced that stated that half of each electoral list must be made up of women.

CD&V, Open Vld, Vooruit (previously Sp.a) and Groen are in favour, but the ruling party, N-VA, opposed this.

[22] In January 2018, a bill (from Ecolo) for voting rights from the age of 16 in municipal elections was also rejected in the Parliament of Wallonia by MR, cdH and PS.

[1] The law of 19 March 2004 also introduced active and passive migrant voting rights for non-European foreigners who have resided in Belgium legally for at least five years for the municipal elections.

[1][3] The law of December 18, 1998 gave Belgians residing abroad the right to vote on the elections of the federal parliament (Chamber and Senate).

[27] The Michel I government wanted to extend this right to vote (for Belgians abroad) to European and regional elections.

[28] In 2019–2020, the Flemish Jambon Government planned to abolish compulsory voting for municipal and provincial elections.