In October, thousands of non-EU residents in Belgium will get the chance to do something many of the country's expats already take for granted — vote in local elections.

Since 2000, EU citizens have been able to vote in municipal and European elections wherever they are living in the EU.

Although the idea caused deep political divisions, Belgium joined most of the former EU 15 nations in extending this right to all residents two years ago.

It means non-European immigrants can vote for the first time in the Belgian local elections on 8 October.

Who can vote?

The Belgian Interior Ministry says nearly one in 10 Belgian residents is of foreign origin and the measure will enfranchise 118,000 non-EU residents over the age of 18.

Among them is Amena Diab, one of an estimated 81,000 Moroccans living in Belgium, the biggest group of non-EU residents.

Amena, 45, who works at a nursery school, has lived in Brussels for 20 years and believes it is only fair she gets the chance to decide who runs her commune.

"When you have been paying taxes and living and taking part in community life for as long as I have, why should I not enjoy the same voting rights as everyone else?" the mother-of-two asks.

Romanian Lucica Eugene, a 25-year-old teacher in Brussels, says: "I would like to vote, but currently do not really feel that I know enough about the local political scene to do so. I will have to familiarise myself with it all".

Mohammed Malik, a 34-year-old Turk, who works as a caterer at the European Parliament, says: "I'd heard about this new law and it is to be welcomed. I am really looking forward to voting and will probably vote for the Socialist candidate because his party was most enthusiastic about giving us the right to vote".

The pre-conditions

The Belgian Parliament initially rejected a bill to grant people such as these the right to vote in local elections.

But all expats living in Belgium, regardless of their nationality, were granted voting rights under a law approved by parliament on 20 February 2004.

People such as Amena will still have to meet strict criteria before being able to participate, including a minimum five-year residency.

Anyone wishing to vote will also have to sign an oath of allegiance to the Belgian constitution, agree to respect the country's laws and sign the European Convention on Human Rights.

He or she will have to be 18 years old on the day of the election and must not have been convicted of a crime in Belgium.

However, Tony Venables, director of the Brussels-based European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), which has campaigned for the voting rights of non-EU nationals, says he has "serious reservations" about some of these conditions, particularly the requirement to swear an oath to the constitution.

"Some countries, such as the Netherlands, ask more of their non-EU residents than they do of their own nationals when it comes to voting. There is a danger that you will push it too far," he says.

Venables also voiced concern that non-EU immigrants do not yet have the voting rights in many of the 10 new, mostly Eastern European, member states which joined the EU in 2004.

A foreigner's right to vote in local elections remains a matter of national, rather than European, legislation.

The numbers game

Jo De Ro, spokesman for Belgian Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, estimates that 118,000 non-EU residents will be eligible to vote throughout the country.

"How many will actually vote really is impossible to say at this stage," he says.
 
Of the near 1 million non-Belgians living in the country, about 177,000 are Italian, 119,000 French and 109,000 Dutch and, traditionally, no more than 5 to 10 percent vote in local elections.

De Ro says municipalities have been entrusted with the task of informing non-EU immigrants about their new-found rights.

There are about 50,000 non-EU residents in Flanders where the local elections will be organised by Flemish Interior Minister Marino Keulen.

"The Flemish government has decided not to run an information campaign, instead preferring to leave this to local communities," Keulen's spokesman, Peter Dejaegher, says.

"Registration is only just starting, but I expect that it will be people who are already well integrated into Belgian society who will register and vote.

"However, it is important to stress that all non-EU immigrants, as with everyone else, avail themselves of the right to vote."

Foreign candidates

The last local elections were held in Belgium in 2000, when 87 non-EU immigrants won seats on Brussels' municipal councils compared with 13 in 1994.

Most of the non-EU candidates were members of the Francophone Socialist PS and Green Ecolo parties.

Among the candidates was Irishman Fearghas de Beara, an official in the European Parliament, who has lived in Belgium for eight years.

He stood in Brussels but, despite being unsuccessful, says it was worth the effort.

"2000 was also the first year EU residents were allowed to vote in Belgium. The registration procedure was a bit complicated but, otherwise, it was straightforward," he says.

"I think it is important everyone takes an interest in how their city, town or village is run and that is why I not only vote, but stood for election."

EU voters

They may be a new thing for non-EU residents, but local elections in Belgium have yet to really capture the imagination of many other expats.

Briton Dennis Abbott, a press officer at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels, says: "I have not voted in the past and am unlikely to do so in the future because I do not know how to go about it and don't really appreciate what the candidates are standing for. Last time, I only received one election leaflet from a candidate, from the Vlaams Blok as it then was."

Philip Shevlin, who works for Eurocontrol, voted in the commune of Ittre, in the south of Brussels, a few years ago, but says he is "reluctant" to do the same again.

"I work shifts and if you register to vote it is obligatory. So if I am working on a Saturday and voting is also on a Saturday it can give problems," he says.

"Also the fact that you can be required to help as a vote counter can cause problems if you are working or have a family to look after at home."

Irish journalist David Cronin says: "I have never voted and know very little about what is happening in local politics".

24 February 2006
 
[Copyright Expatica 2006]

Subject: expat vote, Belgian elections, voting rights