The
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
provincial,
municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
and
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
elections of 2012 took place on 14 October. As with the previous
2006 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2006.
* Elections in 2006
* Electoral calendar 2006
* 2006 Acehnese regional election
* 2006 American Samoan legislative election
* 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election
* 2006 Costa Rican president ...
, these are no longer organised by the Belgian federal state but instead by the respective regions:
*
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
with
19 municipalities
*
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
with 5 provinces and
308 municipalities
** In the city of
Antwerp, elections were also held for
its nine districts
*
Wallonia
Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...
with 5 provinces and
262 municipalities
In the
municipalities with language facilities
There are 27 municipalities with language facilities ( nl, faciliteitengemeenten; french: communes à facilités; german: Fazilitäten-Gemeinden) in Belgium which must offer linguistic services to residents in Dutch, French, or German in additi ...
of
Voeren
Voeren (; ) is a Flemish Dutch-speaking municipality with facilities for the French-speaking minority, located in the Belgian province of Limburg. Bordering the Netherlands to the north and the Wallonia region's Liège Province () to the sou ...
,
Comines-Warneton
Comines-Warneton (; nl, Komen-Waasten, ; pcd, Comène-Warneuton; vls, Koomn-Woastn; wa, Cômene-Varneton) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
On January 1, 2006, it had a total population of 17 ...
and the 6 of the
Brussels Periphery
The Brussels Periphery (, i.e. the "Brussels Rim", or ''Vlaamse Rand'', i.e. the "Flemish Rim", or just ''De Rand'', "the Rim"; ) refers to 19 Flemish municipalities that encircle the Brussels-Capital Region. The Brussels Region is an enclave of ...
, the
aldermen
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members the ...
and members of the
OCMW/CPAS council are directly elected.
Mayors are not directly elected, instead the respective regional government (of Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) appoint one of the elected municipal councillors. The councillors usually propose a candidate.
The result in Wallonia was largely a continuation of the major parties, without any big power shifts. In Flanders however, the nationalist party
N-VA, which won in previous
regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
and
federal elections, continued their success and became (one of) the largest party in many municipalities and the largest in three out of five provinces.
Electoral system
Parties
National political parties are mostly separated by language community. A lot of municipalities have local parties as well as a presence of national parties. Here are the most important national parties:
* Dutch-speaking, generally contending in Flanders and Brussels:
N-VA (nationalist),
CD&V (Christian-democrats),
sp.a (socialists),
Open VLD
french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts
, abbreviation = Open Vld
, logo =
, leader1_title = President
, leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert
, foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld)
, predecessor = ...
(liberals),
Groen
Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch origin, meaning ''green''. (ecologists),
Vlaams Belang
, ideology =
, predecessor = Vlaams Blok
, position =
, europarl = Identity and Democracy
, european = Identity and Democracy Party
, youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren
, colours = ...
(far-right),
PvdA (Marxist)
* French-speaking, generally contending in Wallonia and Brussels:
PS (socialists),
MR (liberals),
FDF (liberals),
CdH (Christian-democrats),
Ecolo
Ecolo, officially Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales'', (English: Confederate Ecologists for the Organisation of Original Struggles)'' is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The ...
(ecologists),
FN (far-right),
PTB (Marxist)
* German-speaking, generally contending in several
German-speaking municipalities in Wallonia
Foreign residents
For the third time, non-Belgian EU residents may vote and be candidate for the municipal elections under the same conditions as Belgian residents, and for the second time non-Belgian non-EU residents may vote, but not be candidate, after 5 years residency. As voting is compulsory and Belgium may not impose voting on foreign residents, would-be voters from both categories have to fill a document and go to their municipal administration before August 1, 2012 to be included on the list of electors. Non-EU residents have to sign a document accepting to conform to Belgian laws and Constitution. The percentage of foreign residents who are enlisted as electors has severely declined from 2006 to 2012: from 20.9% to 14.85% for EU residents, from 15.7% to 6.30% for non-EU residents (still including Bulgarians and Rumanians in 2006).
Brussels
![Brussels-Capital Region blank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Brussels-Capital_Region_blank.svg)
The
Brussels-Capital Region
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
is made up of
19 municipalities (of which one is the
city of Brussels) which are not part of any province.
In these municipalities, French-speaking parties are usually the largest ones, mostly PS and MR. FDF, previously forming a
cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...
with MR and also strong in Brussels municipalities, will now contend on its own, but dissidents from both former partners are contending on the other party's list, particularly in the municipalities where they are currently part of the majority coalition.
Dutch-speaking parties will in some municipalities form a cartel either with their French counterpart or in a larger "Mayor's List", as is the case this time between Ecolo and Groen! in all 19 municipalities, and with PS and SP.A in 17 out of 19. The only Dutch-speaking list with support from most Dutch-speaking parties is Samen (CD&V, Open VLD, SP.A and independents) in Auderghem. N-VA announced it will contend on its own in at least 10 out of the 19 municipalities. 78 Dutch-speaking Dutch-speaking candidates were elected this time in the municipal councils.
There were 613,768 registered voters, an increase of 21,746 compared to 2006. Despite
compulsory voting
Compulsory voting, also called mandatory voting, is the requirement in some countries that eligible citizens register and vote in elections. Penalties might be imposed on those who fail to do so without a valid reason. According to the CIA World ...
, only 508,575 or 82.86% cast a vote, of which 29.370 were invalid votes (6.13% of votes cast). The lowest turnout was in Ixelles (80.11%), whereas Woluwe-Saint-Pierre featured the highest (87.27%). Sint-Jans-Molenbeek had the highest proportion of invalid votes (9.71%), whereas Woluwe-Saint-Pierre had the lowest (2.70%).
Results
Results are available via http://bruxelleselections2012.irisnet.be/
Flanders
The five provincial councils were up for election, as well as the municipal councils of all 308 municipalities along with the district councils in the city of Antwerp and the OCMW councils in seven municipalities with language facilities for French speakers.
Background and general trends
The nationalist party
N-VA became the largest party in the
2010 federal election. It was expected that the party would now achieve a number of seats in many Flemish municipalities, which was indeed the case. Local lists include cartels between two parties and independents, varying from one municipality to another, e.g. SP.A and CD&V in the city of Antwerp, but SP.A and Groen! in the
districts of Antwerp and in Ghent, Open VLD and Groen! (and a splinter group from the CD&V) in Mechelen.
Parties on the right, CD&V, Open VLD and Vlaams Belang, generally lose votes in previous elections whereas N-VA has grown a lot.
The socialist party SP.A is especially successful in large cities, but has slightly been losing votes in previous elections too.
The green party Groen remains stable with a relatively low percentage of votes.
Results are available via http://vlaanderenkiest.be/verkiezingen2012/
Voting being mandatory but unenforced, turnout was lowest in Antwerp city (85.56%), specifically the
city centre district (82.98%), as well as Oostende (85.98%), followed mostly by the linguistically sensitive municipalities in the
Brussels Periphery
The Brussels Periphery (, i.e. the "Brussels Rim", or ''Vlaamse Rand'', i.e. the "Flemish Rim", or just ''De Rand'', "the Rim"; ) refers to 19 Flemish municipalities that encircle the Brussels-Capital Region. The Brussels Region is an enclave of ...
.
Provincial elections
The provincial councils of
Antwerp,
Flemish Brabant,
East Flanders
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Province of Belgium
, image_flag = Flag of Oost-Vlaanderen.svg
, flag_size =
, image_shield = Wapen van O ...
,
West Flanders
)
, settlement_type = Province of Belgium
, image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg
, flag_size =
, image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg
, shield_size =
, image_map ...
and
Limburg
Limburg or Limbourg may refer to:
Regions
* Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium
* Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands
* Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...
were elected. The number of councillors has been reduced.
In East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and especially Antwerp, N-VA became the largest party in the province, followed by CD&V. In Limburg and West Flanders, CD&V remained the biggest party followed by N-VA.
† In Limburg: coalition SP.A - Groen. Only one of the 13 elected candidates (Hassan Amaghlaou) is a member of Groen.
Municipal elections
Below are the results for the municipal council elections of the eight most populous cities, which include the five provincial capitals.
Aalst
After the election,
Christoph D'Haese became mayor of Aalst (in East Flanders), succeeding
Ilse Uyttersprot.
Antwerp
A lot of attention goes to the city of
Antwerp, where
Bart De Wever
Bart Albert Liliane De Wever ( born 21 December 1970) is a Belgian politician. Since 2004 De Wever has been the leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a political party advocating for the independence of Flanders. He is also a member of the ...
, the president of N-VA, wants to become mayor and put an end to decades of socialist mayors, the current one being
Patrick Janssens
Patrick Janssens (born 19 September 1956) is a Belgian former politician. He was a member of the SP.a and the former mayor of the port city Antwerp.
Career
Janssens studied "Political and Social Sciences" and "Applied Economic Sciences" (b ...
(
sp.a). Christian-democrat
CD&V and socialist sp.a will form one list. Also
Wouter Van Besien (president of
Groen
Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch origin, meaning ''green''. ) is contending for the position of mayor, and
Filip Dewinter
Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter (born 11 September 1962) is a Belgian politician. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party. Together with Hugo Coveliers of the VLO ...
of extreme-right
Vlaams Belang
, ideology =
, predecessor = Vlaams Blok
, position =
, europarl = Identity and Democracy
, european = Identity and Democracy Party
, youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren
, colours = ...
is campaigning in Antwerp. According to a poll, N-VA would get 42,9% of the votes, giving 26 out of 55 seats in the municipal party, and 46,5% would like to see De Wever become the new mayor.
Bruges
In
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population.
The area of the whole city a ...
(capital of West Flanders), the incumbent mayor (CD&V), who led a coalition of CD&V/N-VA, SP.A and VLD (which were all represented parties except Groen and VB), quit so all possibilities remained open. Polls gave CD&V, SP.A and N-VA as major parties.
Gent
In
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...
(capital of East Flanders), the incumbent mayor
Daniël Termont is very popular. SP.A, his party, now formed a cartel with
Groen
Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch origin, meaning ''green''. . Polls predict the cartel will get about 43% of the votes. The parties Open VLD of
Mathias De Clercq
Mathias Toon Cecil Willy De Clercq, Jonkheer, esq. (born 26 December 1981, Ghent) is a Belgians, Belgian politician. He is a member of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, Flemish liberal party. At the moment he is the List of mayors of Ghen ...
and N-VA of
Siegfried Bracke follow after a gap.
Hasselt
Kortrijk
Vincent Van Quickenborne
Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer'').
People with the given name Artists
*Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor
*Vincent van Gogh ...
became mayor of
Kortrijk
Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders.
It is the capital and large ...
(in West Flanders), with a coalition of Open Vld, N-VA and sp.a, defeating incumbent mayor
Stefaan De Clerck and his CD&V, thereby ending a 150-year period of Catholic and Christian democratic mayors in the city.
Leuven
In
Leuven (capital of
Flemish Brabant), polls indicated that SP.A, the party of incumbent mayor
Louis Tobback, would still be the largest. N-VA, CD&V and Groen follow after a gap.
Mechelen
Bart Somers (Open Vld), mayor since 2001, continued after the elections with his "vld-Groen-m+ city list", but with N-VA and CD&V as coalition partners instead of sp.a. Sp.a became opposition, along with a significantly reduced Vlaams Belang.
Wallonia
PS and MR are generally the two largest parties, followed by Ecolo and CDH. In the province of Luxembourg, CDH is generally more successful. No major trends or shifts were expected nor happened.
Results are available via https://web.archive.org/web/20121015010835/http://elections2012.wallonie.be/results/fr/
Provincial elections
The provincial councils of
Namur,
Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant (french: Brabant wallon ; nl, Waals-Brabant ; wa, Roman Payis) is a province located in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the province of Flemish Brabant (Flemish Region) and ...
,
Liège,
Hainaut and
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
were elected. The number of councillors has been reduced.
* * includes the votes of the German-speaking sister party of Liegé province
The official results of the 2018 provincial elections in Wallonia
14 October 2018, elections2018.wallonie.be
Municipal elections
References
External links
Electoral leaflets and posters
(site map fo
Brussels
Flanders
Wallonia
, ''Tractothèque''
{{Belgian elections
2012 elections in Belgium
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
October 2012 events in Europe