Elections 2024: Some numbers about Flanders

Local elections will take place at municipal and provincial levels in Belgium on Sunday, 13 October. In the run-up to the vote, Belga English explores the main issues to watch out for and provides a daily overview of events.

On Tuesday, 40 days before the elections, the numbers were drawn for the elections in the Flemish region to determine where on the ballot each party will appear. The list of socialists Vooruit was drawn in position 1, communists PVDA 2, Christian democrats CD&V 3, extreme right Vlaams Belang 4, Flemish nationalists N-VA 5, liberals Open VLD 6 and greens Groen 7.

Parties that are standing in only one municipality get a number from 8 onwards. When two parties form a group in one municipality, that list is given the number of the first national party in the name of the cartel.

For the first time, Flemish voters are not obliged to vote. They will elect 7,700 politicians, for 285 municipal councils and five provincial councils.

The number of municipal councils is lower than at the previous elections because there is a trend to merge. Several municipalities joined forces and were given higher subsidies from the Flemish government. The number of provincial councils is the same, although most Flemish parties agree that provinces should be abolished, because they don’t have much added value in the structure of Belgium since the subsequent state reforms.

The 13 October elections are organised not on the federal level but by region. In Wallonia, the parties were given their numbers on Sunday. In Brussels, the draw was on Tuesday. Both francophone and Flemish parties participate in the capital region.

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