Eligibility Exception:
criminal conviction (suspension of rights: insanity, imprisonment, as long as the persons concerned remain in an incapacitated state)
Right Vote Foreign Res:
Foreign residents right to vote for local elections or equivalent only
Expat Residency Requirement:
Expatriate citizens always have right to vote with no time limit
Registration Type:
Automatic registration
Registration Basis:
Residence requirement
Election Management & Enforcement
Nameof EMB:
Ministry of Interior
Independent EMB:
No
Who Runs Election:
Government/National Administration
Restrictto Candidacy:
Belgian, 18+, Belgian resident, not eligible if temporarily ban from exercise of vote due to sentence, or person declared incapable of exercising political rights in light of article 492/1 of the civil code or have been interned by application 2014 law about internment.
Campaign Length Average:
31
Official Media Campaign:
OSCE Report 2014: Media is largely self- regulated, with specific rules concerning elections resting with the three Communities. All three Communities provide free airtime for contestants on public media and seek to limit any undue advantage incumbents may have in terms of media access during the campaign period. The French- language public broadcaster introduced a so-called ‘cordon sanitaire’ rule, whereby a “non- democratic” political party is denied live air-time for political messages. The decision as to what constitutes a “non-democratic” party rests solely with the public broadcaster.
Electoral System & Organisation
Elect System Main Election:
Proportional with threshold
Main Election Type:
Federal
Main Election Cycle:
4
Referenda_Law:
/
Referenda_Binding:
Wikipedia: 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. Consequently, Belgium is a representative democracy, almost without any form of direct democracy.
Voting Machine:
touchscreen
Vote IDRequired:
ID check compulsory
Polling Card:
No polling card
National Holiday Elect Day:
Never
Dayof Election:
Sunday
Districting Source:
Parliament
Districting Flexibility:
Electoral constituencies are delimited in the electoral law. One constituency consists of one or more administrative units.
Polling Station
Average Voterby Polling Station:
735
Normal Opening Time Poll Station:
08:00
Normal Closing Time Poll Station:
1600
Polling Station Numbers:
10500
Listof Polling Station Buildings:
Public buildings, schools
Decision For Opening Time Variations:
In Brussels they will remain open until 4 p.m. In Flanders, polling stations working with paper ballots close at 1 p.m., digital voting remains possible until 3 p.m.
Accessibility Requirement:
one in five polling stations must be accessible
Ballot Box Transparency:
Fully opaque
Vote Receipt:
receipt of recorded vote
Count Locallyor Centrally:
centrally
Manualor Automatic Count:
automatic
Nature Counting Personnel:
Polling Staff
Ballot Paper
Ballot Type:
Paper
Singleor Multi Paper Ballot:
Single
Max Numberof Votesper Ballot:
3
Ballot Paper Type Description:
Each voter receives an activated smart card which s/he inserts in a card reader attached to a stand-alone voting machine. The voter can make her/his preference on the LCD touch screen of the machine which also has a built-in printer to create a paper record of the vote.
Ballot Paper Type Photo Upload:
YES
Orderof Candidatesor Parties:
random
Remote Voting
Temporal Remote Voting:
If conditions met
Geographical Remote Voting:
If conditions met
Personal Remote Voting:
If conditions met
Time Temporal Remote:
1
Remote Voting List:
Proxy Vote, by mail
Mobile Polling Stations:
No
Special Needs
Provision First Time Voters:
Politico Article; Chase a Short Guide to Voting; OSCE 2007 says most poll workers are first-time voters (positively engaging young).
Provision Illiterate Voters:
training for polling station officials on how to assist people with intellectual disabilities + chance to cast their votes more independently with help from technology, even if they do not know how to read or write.
Provision Linguistic Ethnic Minorites:
Bilingual ballot
Provision Blind Voters:
With regard to voting assistance, a guide or support person chosen by the voter, with the authorization of the polling office president, may accompany a voter, who, by reason of physical disability, is unable to go alone in the voting booth or to express his own vote. Alternatively, a staff member of the polling station (assessor, secretary or president) or any other person designated by the voter may be appointed to lend assistance.
Provision Deaf Voters:
With regard to voting assistance, a guide or support person chosen by the voter, with the authorization of the polling office president, may accompany a voter, who, by reason of physical disability, is unable to go alone in the voting booth or to express his own vote. Alternatively, a staff member of the polling station (assessor, secretary or president) or any other person designated by the voter may be appointed to lend assistance.
Provision Motor Handicap Voters:
With regard to voting assistance, a guide or support person chosen by the voter, with the authorization of the polling office president, may accompany a voter, who, by reason of physical disability, is unable to go alone in the voting booth or to express his own vote. Alternatively, a staff member of the polling station (assessor, secretary or president) or any other person designated by the voter may be appointed to lend assistance.
Over Representation Vuln Group:
Reserved Upper House Seats - 29 French 41 Flemish 1 German
Targeted Initiatives
History Major Changes:
Compulsory voting was introduced in 1894.
Recent Major Changes:
Electronic voting in Belgium started in 1991. It is widely used in Belgium for general and municipal elections and has been since 1999.