Residents of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode will have to return to the polls on Sunday to vote in the local elections. The 13 October results were annulled by the Brussels Regional Court due to "irregularities" with proxy votes.
The Belgian local elections took place some four months ago. In Brussels, 18 of the 19 communes have now established a municipal council (although no majority is yet in sight in Schaerbeek). Only in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode has time stood still since the 13 October local elections.
Sitting mayor Emir Kir's Liste du Bourgmestre (LB) won the elections in October with an absolute majority (50.5% of the vote). However, the results were later declared invalid by the Brussels Regional Court due to "irregularities" with proxy votes (where voters assign their vote to someone when they cannot vote). This may have influenced the allocation of seats.
The date for the re-election – referred to by the local authorities as "extraordinary elections" – was set for Sunday 9 February. Polling stations will be open from 08:00 to 16:00. Find more about the significance of local elections here.
Who is running?
Saint-Josse residents will be able to choose from five lists and 132 candidates on Sunday.
Just like in October, the lists will be:
- Engagés-cd&v-MR-VLD (with Les Engagés' Saïd Benhammou as the list leader)
- ECOLO-GROEN (with Ecolo's Ahmed Mouhssin as the list leader)
- PS : Parti Socialiste (with Philippe Boïketé as the list leader)
- TEAM FOUAD AHIDAR (with Ibrahim Dankus as the list leader)
- List du Bourgmestre or LB (with Emir Kir as the list leader)
Election posters are still up in Saint-Josse, 18 January 2025. Credit: The Brussels Times
Team Fouad Ahidar's list now counts 16 candidates, instead of 11 previously. The other four lists all have 29 candidates. The full lists can be found on the official elections website.
Eligible to vote?
All Belgians over the age of 18 in Brussels and Wallonia are obliged to vote in local elections (unlike in Flanders, where mandatory voting was abolished for this vote). Additionally, EU citizens and non-EU citizens living in Belgium for five years are also eligible to vote in municipal elections, but they must have registered in advance.
"The new electoral roll of the commune of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode was finalised on 19 November 2024," a spokesperson for the regional administration Local Authorities, Jonas Declercq, told The Brussels Times.
All Saint-Josse residents who registered for the 13 October elections are obliged to vote on 9 February as well. "International residents will only not have received a convocation letter if they deregistered as municipal voters before 19 November. The deadline to register for Sunday's elections in Saint-Josse as a non-Belgian has passed.
The convocation letter inviting people to vote, sent at least 15 days before the elections, will state the exact polling station location. People with disabilities should be offered free transport to and from the polling station. Voters must bring this note (a new letter can be requested at the city hall if it's lost) and an identity card or passport when they go to vote.
Preventing fraud
Kir's victory in October 2024 was among the largest vote-share increases in the country. However, leading figures from Ecolo, PS and Team Fouad Ahidar in Saint-Josse filed an official complaint for possible fraud.
The parties asked for an investigation, and the Brussels Court of Law found a range of irregularities with proxy voting, including missing signatures, incomplete data, and/or lack of certification.
Measures have been taken to avoid the same happening during the election re-run this weekend, Declercq said.
"Unlike October, when the municipalities trained the polling station chairpeople, the region provided its own training this time," he said. During the general local elections, polls were opened in 19 municipalities, meaning there were significantly more chairpeople and secretaries to be trained.
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"Now, during the training of polling station chairpeople, we paid extra attention to proxy checks," Declercq added. "We explained to the chairs what to look out for and which proxies should not have been accepted in October."
Meanwhile, people who want to appoint someone as their proxy can only choose someone voting in Saint-Josse, rather than any registered voter as was the case in October. "Voters from other communes in Brussels or other regions cannot therefore vote on your behalf," the elections.brussels website stated.
