2012 Belgian local elections

none 2012 Belgian local elections Belgium parliamentary no 2006 Belgian local elections 2006 2018 Belgian local elections 2018 2012 10 14 yes All 10 provincial councilsAll 589 municipal councilsAll 8 directly elected OCMW/CPAS councilsAll 9 Antwerp city district councils Belgian_local_elections_map_2012.png The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2012 took place on 14 October. As with the previous 2006 elections, these are no longer organised by the Belgian federal state but instead by the respective regions: Brussels with 19 municipalities Flanders with 5 provinces and 308 municipalities In the city of Antwerp, elections were also held for its nine districts Wallonia with 5 provinces and 262 municipalities In the municipalities with language facilities of Voeren, Comines-Warneton and the 6 of the Brussels Periphery, the aldermen and members of the OCMW/CPAS council are directly elected.http://vlaanderenkiest.be vlaanderenkiest.be 2011-10-17 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 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 Political parties in Belgium Political parties in Flanders 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 (liberals), Groen (ecologists), Vlaams Belang (far-right), PvdA (Marxist) French-speaking, generally contending in Wallonia and Brussels: PS (socialists), MR (liberals), FDF (liberals), CdH (Christian-democrats), Ecolo (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.Document for EU residents (French)August 2017 medicmedic, Dutch) https://web.archive.org/web/20120803101401/http://www.ibz.rrn.fgov.be/fileadmin/user_upload/Elections/communales2012/nl/AM-CITOYENS-EUROP-communales-bijlage.pdf August 3, 2012 , for non-EU residents (French) https://web.archive.org/web/20120619103037/http://www.ibz.rrn.fgov.be/fileadmin/user_upload/Elections/communales2012/fr/AR-CITOYENS-NON-BELGES-modeles-annexe-II.pdf June 19, 2012 , (Dutch https://web.archive.org/web/20120803101406/http://www.ibz.rrn.fgov.be/fileadmin/user_upload/Elections/communales2012/nl/AR-CITOYENS-NON-BELGES-modeles-bijlage-II.pdf August 3, 2012 ), Website of the Interior Ministry 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).Statistiques officielles des électeurs https://web.archive.org/web/20120227111004/http://www.contact.rrn.fgov.be/fr/statelc/index.php February 27, 2012 , Website of the Interior Ministry Brussels The Brussels-Capital Region 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 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.https://archive.today/20120710014754/http://brussel.n-va.be/video/n-va-neemt-minstens-tien-brusselse-gemeenten-deel-aan-gemeenteraadsverkiezingen N-VA neemt in minstens tien Brusselse gemeenten deel aan gemeenteraadsverkiezingen, 23 May 2012, n-va.be 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, 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%). Molenbeek-Saint-Jean had the highest proportion of invalid votes (9.71%), whereas Woluwe-Saint-Pierre had the lowest (2.70%).Cijfers gemeenteraadsverkiezingen 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20130518181408/http://www.briobrussel.be/ned/webpage.asp?WebpageId=1010 2013-05-18 , Brio Brussel Results Results are available via http://bruxelleselections2012.irisnet.be/ Municipality Total seats CDH(-CD&V) Ecolo-Green LB MR-Open VLD PS-sp.a Flemish Interest N-VA FDF Other Anderlecht 47 (+2) * 5 14 * 1 21 (PS-SP.A-CDH) Auderghem 29 (+2) 1 4 23 2 - - 1 Brussels 49 (+2) 10 7 10 18 - 1 3 Etterbeek 35 4 6 17 5 3 Evere 33 (+2) 3 4 16 6 * - 1 4 Forest 37 (+2) 3 7 - 10 14 - - 3 Ganshoren 27 2 11 6 1 7 (ProGanshoren) Ixelles 43 (+2) 4 11 8 15 - - 0 5 Jette 35 4 5 10 1 1 12 (LBJ), 2 (Les Liberaux) Koekelberg 27 (+2) - 3 16 - 8 - - - Saint-Gilles 35 2 8 19 6 - - - - Saint-Josse-ten-Noode 29 (+2) 5 5 16 3 (Bleus de St-Josse) Schaerbeek 47 4 7 18 4 13 - - 1 Sint-Agatha-Berchem 27 3 6 4 1 2 1 (Berch'm), 10 (LBR) Sint-Jans-Molenbeek 43 (+4) 6 4 16 15 - - 1 3 Uccle 41 3 7 - 21 5 - - 5 Watermael-Boitsfort 27 - 7 10 3 2 - - - Woluwe-Saint-Lambert 37 (+2) 3 3 24 6 1 - - - Woluwe-Saint-Pierre 33 - 3 14 - 1 - - 15 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. Provincial elections The provincial councils of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders and Limburg 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. Province Total seats CD&V Vlaams Belang Groen N-VA Open VLD PVDA+ SP.A UFAntwerp 72 ( 12) 16.8 (13) 10.8 (7) 9.3 (6) 35.9 (27) 10.1 (7) 3.4 (2) 12.8 (10) —East Flanders 72 ( 12) 19.8 (15) 9.3 (6) 9 (6) 26.1 (21) 19.3 (15) 1.7 (0) 12.7 (9) —Flemish Brabant 72 ( 12) 19.5 (15) 6.7 (5) 9.6 (7) 25.8 (19) 16.8 (13) 1.2 (0) 12.1 (8) 7.1 (5)Limburg (Belgium) Limburg 63 ( 12) 27.5 (18) 9.1 (6) † 26.1 (17) 14.1 (9) 2.2 (0) 20.1 (13)† —West Flanders 72 ( 12) 27.6 (21) 7.7 (5) 7.5 (4) 25.3 (20) 13.4 (10) 1.3 (0) 15.8 (12) — Total 351 ( 60) PartyVotes%+/– (2006)Seats+/– (2006) New Flemish Alliance New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) 1,165,938 28.5 * 104 * Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) 877,019 21.5 * 82 * Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) 595,932 14.6 4.4 54 Socialistische Partij Anders Socialist Party–Different (SP.A) 580,078 11.5 7.7 51† Vlaams Belang Flemish Interest (VB) 365,439 8.9 12.6 29 Groen (political party) Green 314,538 7.7 0.1 24† Union des Francophones Union des Francophones (UF) 48,920 1.2 5 1 Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA+) 84,037 2.1 2.1 2 2 Other parties 55,284 1.4 — Valid votes 4,087,185 Invalid votes Blanco votes Total 351 † 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. Aalst City Council election, 2012 Main candidate New Flemish Alliance Christoph D'Haese (15 seats won) 17,312 31.1% Christian Democratic and Flemish Ilse Uyttersprot (8 seats won) 9,618 17.3% Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Jean-Jacques De Gucht (7 seats won) 9,616 17.3% Socialist Party Differently Ann Van de Steen (7 seats won) 9,114 16.4% Flemish Interest Michel Van Brempt (4 seats won) 6,003 10.8% –12 Green (political party) Andreas Verleysen (2 seats won) 3,268 5.9% +1.2 Workers' Party of Belgium Romain Dierickx (no seats won) 661 1.2% +0.5 Antwerp A lot of attention goes to the city of Antwerp, where Bart De Wever, the president of N-VA, wants to become mayor and put an end to decades of socialist mayors, the current one being Patrick Janssens (sp.a). Christian-democrat CD&V and socialist sp.a will form one list. Also Wouter Van Besien (president of Groen) is contending for the position of mayor, and Filip Dewinter of extreme-right Vlaams Belang 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.http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1292287 Antwerpenaars kiezen massaal voor De Wever in peiling deredactie.be nl Antwerp City Council election, 2012 Main candidate New Flemish Alliance Bart De Wever (23 seats won) 102,795 37.7% sp.a-CD&V joint list Patrick Janssens (17 seats won) 77,867 28.6% Flemish Interest Filip Dewinter (5 seats won) 27,824 10.2% Workers' Party of Belgium Peter Mertens (4 seats won) 21,720 8.0% +6.2 Green (political party) Meyrem Almaci (4 seats won) 21,658 7.9% +3.2 Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Annemie Turtelboom (2 seats won) 15,098 5.5% Others (no seats won) 5,473 2.0% Bruges In Bruges (capital of West Flanders), the incumbent mayor Patrick Moenaert (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.http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1448091 Nek-aan-nekrace tussen CD&V en SP.A in Brugge Deredactie.be nl Bruges City Council election, 2012 Main candidate Socialist Party Differently Renaat Landuyt (14 seats won) 21,567 26.8% Christian Democratic and Flemish Dirk De fauw (13 seats won) 21,404 26.6% New Flemish Alliance Anne Minne-Soete (10 seats won) 15,948 19.8% Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Mercedes Van Volcem (5 seats won) 8,859 11.0% Green (political party) Sammy Roelant (3 seats won) 7,123 8.8% +2.3 Flemish Interest Alain Quataert (2 seats won) 4,350 5.4% –10.8 Others (no seats won) 1,327 1.7% Gent In Ghent (capital of East Flanders), the incumbent mayor Daniël Termont is very popular. SP.A, his party, now formed a cartel with Groen. Polls predict the cartel will get about 43% of the votes. The parties Open VLD of Mathias De Clercq and N-VA of Siegfried Bracke follow after a gap.http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1448043 Kartel van Termont blaast tegenstand weg in Gent Deredactie.be nl Ghent City Council election, 2012 Main candidate sp.a-Groen Daniël Termont (25 seats won) 69,356 45.5% New Flemish Alliance Siegfried Bracke (9 seats won) 26,064 17.1% Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Mathias De Clercq (9 seats won) 25,167 16.5% Christian Democratic and Flemish Veli Yüksel (4 seats won) 13,834 9.1% Flemish Interest Johan Deckmyn (3 seats won) 9,966 6.5% –11.5 Workers' Party of Belgium Tom De Meester (no seats won) 4,431 2.9% +1.9 Others (no seats won) 3,694 2.4% Hasselt Hasselt City Council election, 2012 Main candidate Helemaal Hasselt Hilde Claes (15 seats won) 16,987 33.0% New Flemish Alliance Steven Vandeput (11 seats won) 13,130 25.5% Christian Democratic and Flemish Ivo Belet (10 seats won) 21,404 26.6% Groei met Open Vld Laurence Libert (4 seats won) 5,096 9.9% Flemish Interest Katleen Martens (1 seat won) 2.845 5,5% –8.4 Leefbaar Hasselt Jan Marechal (no seats won) 1.677 3,3% Kortrijk Vincent Van Quickenborne became mayor of Kortrijk (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. Kortrijk City Council election, 2012 Main candidate Christian Democratic and Flemish Stefaan De Clerck (15 seats won) 16,666 33% Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Vincent Van Quickenborne (9 seats won) 10,771 21.3% –0.2 New Flemish Alliance Rudolf Scherpereel (7 seats won) 8,247 16.3% Socialist Party Differently Philippe De Coene (6 seats won) 7,222 14.3% Green (political party) Bart Caron (2 seats won) 3,715 7.4% +1.8 Flemish Interest Maarten Seynaeve (2 seats won) 3,072 6.1% –8.3 Others (no seats won) 841 1.7% 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.http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.1448045 Tobback blijft stevig in het zadel in Leuven Deredactie.be nl Leuven City Council election, 2012 Main candidate Socialist Party Differently Louis Tobback (16 seats won) 18,300 31.4% New Flemish Alliance Danny Pieters (9 seats won) 11,091 19.0% Christian Democratic and Flemish Carl Devlies (9 seats won) 10,780 18.5% Green (political party) Fatiha Dahmani (7 seats won) 9,008 15.5% +4.2 Open Vld / LEUVEN+ Rik Daems (3 seats won) 4,561 7.8% Flemish Interest Hagen Goyvaerts (1 seat won) 2,173 3.7% –7.9 Workers' Party of Belgium Tine Van Rompuy (no seats won) 1,656 2.8% +1.7 Others (no seats won) 674 1.1% 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. Mechelen City Council election, 2012 Main candidate vld-Groen-m+ Bart Somers (16 seats won) 17,900 33.9% New Flemish Alliance Marc Hendrickx (11 seats won) 12,244 23.2% Socialist Party Differently Caroline Gennez (8 seats won) 9,610 18.2% Christian Democratic and Flemish Walter Schroons (5 seats won) 6,524 12.4% Flemish Interest Frank Creyelman (3 seats won) 4,589 8.7% –17.8 Workers' Party of Belgium Dirk Tuypens (no seats won) 1,610 3.0% +2.4 Bewoners Partij Jan Mussin (no seats won) 328 0.6% 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, Liège, Hainaut and Luxembourg were elected. The number of councillors has been reduced. Province Total seats CDH CSP Ecolo FDF MR PFF-MR PS PTB+ SPHainaut 56 ( 28) 14.39% 6 ( 9) — 10.88% 4 ( 1) 2.3% 0 23.17% 16 ( 7) — 39.68% 30 ( 8) 2.5% 0—Liège 56 ( 28) 13.76% 7 ( 6) 1.72% 1 ( 1) 14.76% 8 ( 3) 1.7% 0 25.16% 16 ( 6) 1.74% 1 ( 1) 32.22% 20 ( 12) 4.71% 2 ( 2) 0.72% 1 ( 1)Luxembourg (Belgium) Luxembourg 37 ( 10) 34.95% 14 ( 8) — 11.58% 2 ( 1) 1.8% 0 26.06 11 ( 6) — 23.03% 10 ( 4) 0.6% 0 —Namur Namur 37 ( 19) 19.87% 8 ( 6) — 13.97% 4 ( 3) 2.4% 0 29.79% 13 ( 4) — 27.82% 12 ( 6) 2.1% 0 —Walloon Brabant 37 ( 19) 12.26% 5 ( 4) — 16.29 6 ( 3) 4.78% 2 ( 2) 42.44% 17 ( 7) — 17.33% 7 ( 5) 0.8% 0 — Total 223 ( 104) 16,96%* 40 1 13,17% 24 2,41% 2 27,71%* 73 1 31,99%* 79 2,77% 2 1 * includes the votes of the German-speaking sister party of Liegé provinceThe official results of the 2018 provincial elections in Wallonia, 14 October 2018, elections2018.wallonie.be Municipal elections City (Provincial capital) CDH Ecolo MR PS Other Arlon 11 4 6 8 — Liège 7 6 11 22 3 Mons 3 3 8 29 2 Namur 16 6 10 15 — Wavre 3 4 * 4 20 (LB) References External links Electoral leaflets and posters (site map for Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia), Tractothèque Category:2012 elections in Belgium 2012 Category:October 2012 in Europe