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 parties, 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 parties, generally contending in Wallonia and Brussels: PS (socialists), MR (liberals), DéFI (regionalists/liberals), CdH (Christian democrats), Ecolo (ecologists), PTB (Marxist)
• German-speaking parties, generally contending in several German-speaking municipalities in Wallonia

Voters

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over are automatically registered and are obliged to participate in the election. Foreigners, both EU and non-EU, have the right to register to vote.

The number of voters is as follows as of 1 August 2018:

Brussels

Following the 2012 election, Freddy Thielemans (PS) continued as mayor, heading a coalition of socialists (PS-sp.a) and liberals (MR-Open Vld). In December 2013, Thielemans retired and was succeeded by Yvan Mayeur (PS). In 2017, a scandal emerged surrounding Samusocial, an organisation for homeless people where board members received excessive compensations for supposed meetings. Mayeur was forced to resign and was succeeded by Philippe Close (PS). The coalition was no longer supported by sp.a, and sp.a alderwoman Ans Persoons quit. Persoons and sp.a will contend the election on their own as Change.Brussels.

An October 2017 poll showed the Green parties surpassing the socialists as largest party.^[5]

In 2018, new financial-political scandals emerged regarding at least three organisations (Gial, Brinfin and Neo) where people were reimbursed as self-employed where they should have been actually employed.

A debate among the main Dutch-speaking candidates was held on 4 September.^[6]

Brussels is the only Belgian commune where two Islamic parties contend this election, Islam and its splinter party Salem, the first with two candidates (a father and his daughter), the second with three. Islam had 2 councillors in 2012, one in Anderlecht, the other in Molenbeek, both elected on one-person lists. The third list, in Brussels, failed to get a councillor elected in 2012. This time, the party has only been able to present lists of two candidates in Molenbeek and Brussels. There is a third Islamic party, limited to the province of Liège, the Movement for Education (MPE), which presents lists in three communes, Liège, Dison and Fléron, two one-candidate lists and one three-candidates list.

More information Party, Main candidate ...

2018 Brussels City Council election

Party		Main candidate	Votes	%	±%
	PS	Philippe Close (Incumbent mayor)	19,997	28.38%	0.74%
	Ecolo	Benoît Hellings	11,847	16.81%	4.42%
	MR	Alain Courtois	9,772	13.87%	4.02%
	PVDA-PTB	Mathilde El Bakri	8,159	11.58%	10.02%
	cdH	Didier Wauters[7]	6,543	9.29%	8.72%
	DéFI	Fabian Maingain	5,317	7.55%	0.08%
	N-VA	Johan Van den Driessche	2,606	3.70%	0.64%
	Change.Brussels	Ans Persoons	2,269	3.22%	3.22%
	Others		3,957	5.61%

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Opinion polling:

Schaerbeek

In 1994, a new coalition took power in Schaerbeek against the former Liberal (PRL) majority that had backed far right mayor Roger Nols [fr]. This coalition included former 'Nolsists', under the leadership of incumbent mayor Francis Duriau, the FDF of Bernard Clerfayt, Ecolo, the PSC and the PS (the Flemish SP competed apart, on a common list with a small local movement, IDS). The coalition was renewed in 2000, without the PSC but with the MR which competed under the Liste du Bourgmestre (Mayor's List) flag, uniting the former PRL and the FDF. In 2006, the coalition excluded the PS, which had among its councillors a controversial Turkish member of the Grey Wolves. This provoked the exclusion of Ecolo by the PS in the ruling coalitions e.g. in Brussels and Molenbeek. In 2012, the PS was maintained in the opposition, while the CDH (4 seats) entered it with 2 aldermen, and the local MR chapter broke up as the federal party forbade any common list with its former FDF partner, but a majority of the local chapter chose to go forward with the (predominantly FDF) Mayor's List as 'Independent Liberals'.

The situation before the 2018 elections is quite different from the two previous ones. In 2006 and 2012, federal Vice-Premier Laurette Onkelinx led the PS list against the Mayor's List, overtly hoping to supersede it and take the mayorship. In both elections, the Ecolo list was led by a former federal leader, Isabelle Durant, who chose to keep its alliance with FDF Bernard Clerfayt. In 2017, both Durant and Onkelinx resigned from the municipal council and there are no notorious followers in sight.^[10][11] PS federal deputy Ahmed Laaouej declined the offer to move from Koekelberg to Schaerbeek to replace her.^[12][13] In 2015, the CDH fraction was halved with the exclusion of Regional deputy Mahinur Özdemir, officially for refusing to recognize the existence of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Another Turkish CDH councillor left the CDH group after this exclusion.^[14]

Apart from the New Flemish Alliance and the Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) lists, Flemish parties have common lists with their Francophone counterpart: PS-SP.A, CDH-CD&V, Ecolo-Groen. The Open VLD, whose only councillor sits within the majority, has decided to join the Liste du Bourgmestre (Mayor's List), which includes DéFI (new name of the FDF) candidates, including the mayor himself, and former MR.^[15]

More information Party, Main candidate ...

2018 Schaerbeek City Council election

Party		Main candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liste du Bourgmestre	Bernard Clerfayt (Incumbent mayor)	16887	32.0%	0.7%
	Ecolo	Vincent Vanhalewyn[16][17]	10241	19.4%	6%
	PS	Mathieu Degrez[18]	9557	18.1%	6.97%
	PVDA-PTB	Axel Bernard	6688	12.7%	9.3%
	cdH	Denis Grimberghs[19][20]	3814	7.2%	1.85%
	MR	Georges Verzin[21]	3291	6.2%	3.37%
	N-VA	Cieltje Van Achter[22]	1444	2.7%	0.5%
	VB	Patrick Sessler[23]	620	1.2%	0.3%
	Citoyen d'Europe M3E	Kateryna Mankovska	285	0.5%	0.5%

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Opinion polling:

Other municipalities

• Ganshoren: Pierre Kompany, the father of Vincent Kompany, becomes the first black mayor in Belgium.
• Forest/Vorst: Stéphane Roberti (Ecolo) becomes mayor, succeeding Marc-Jean Ghyssels (PS).

Procedures and changes

In Flanders, the elections are mainly regulated by the Local and Provincial Electoral Act of 8 July 2011. Below are a few key dates set out in the Act applied to these elections:

All residents aged 18 and higher with Belgian citizenship are obligated to vote. Foreigners, both EU and non-EU, have the right to vote. A May 2017 proposal to lower the voting age to 16 was blocked by government party N-VA.^[26]

Minister of Local Government Homans defined by order of 31 May 2018 the 163 municipalities that vote electronically; the other 145 municipalities vote by paper ballot.

Fifteen Flemish municipalities will merge into seven per 1 January 2019, when the legislative period elected in these elections starts. This reduces the number of Flemish municipalities from 308 to 300.

By order of 25 May 2018, the Flemish Government defined the number of councillors to be elected. In total, 7,398 municipal councillors will be elected in Flanders, a decrease of 66 compared to 2012. Thirty municipalities see an increase of two councillors, whereas in Ardooie and Ypres the population decreased, leading to a decrease of two councillors. The overall decrease however is mostly due to the merging of municipalities.

Political background

The following political parties have a common regional list numbers:

1.   sp.a
2.   N-VA
3.   CD&V
4.   Groen
5.   Vlaams Belang
6.   Open Vld

While N-VA has replaced CD&V's longstanding dominance nationally (in the 2010 and 2014 elections), the latter party retains its advantage on a local level. N-VA was able to break through in a lot of places locally in 2012, but CD&V remained the largest party in many municipalities, especially in rural ones.

Open Vld has strongholds both in rural and urban areas; for example the mayors of Mechelen and Kortrijk are Open Vld members. Sp.a tends to dominate in cities; however, it lost Antwerp in 2012 to N-VA, and Hasselt's mayoralty to CD&V in 2016. Gent's and Leuven's sp.a mayors are retiring, posing further threats to the party's power in cities. Sp.a chairman John Crombez suggested he would quit if his party's results are bad.^[27]

Groen only has two mayors, and Vlaams Belang is nowhere in power.

Provincial elections

The provincial councils of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders and Limburg will be elected. The Flemish Government reduced the total number of provincial councillors from 351 to 175: 31 instead of 63 for Limburg and 36 instead of 72 for the other four provinces. Councillors are elected for a six-year term, starting on the first working day in December following the elections, thus 3 December 2018.

More information Party, Antwerp ...

Party		Antwerp			East Flanders			Flemish Brabant			Limburg			West Flanders			Total
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	N-VA	372,951	32.8%	14	212,003	21.4%	8	178,415	25.3%	10	118,550	21.5%	7	155,449	19.5%	7	1,037,368	24.8% ( 3.7pp)	46 ( 58)
	CD&V	175,355	15.4%	6	178,099	18%	7	123,962	17.6%	7	139,064	25.2%	10	206,008	25.8%	10	822,488	19.7% ( 1.8pp)	40 ( 42)
	Open Vld	103,664	9.1%	2	181,289	18.3%	7	108,580	15.4%	5	70,365	12.7%	4	106,703	13.4%	5	570,601	13.7% ( 0.9pp)	23 ( 31)
	Groen	163,091	14.4%	5	138,499	14%	5	106,399	15.1%	6	46,952	8.5%	1	97,370	12.2%	4	552,311	13.2% ( 5.5pp)	21 ( 3)
	Vlaams Belang	161,584	14.2%	6	140,212	14.2%	6	60,621	8.6%	3	67,996	12.3%	4	112,323	14.1%	5	542,736	13% ( 4.1pp)	24 ( 5)
	sp.a	90,405	8%	2	95,396	9.6%	3	63,510	9%	3	85,010	15.4%	5	99,059	12.4%	5	433,380	10.4% ( 1.1pp)	18 ( 33)
	PVDA+	51,405	4.5%	1	31,633	3.2%	0	16,060	2.3%	0	16,503	3%	0	16,286	2%	0	131,887	3.2% ( 1.1pp)	1 ( 1)
	Others	17,971	1.7%	0	12,542	1.2%	0	8,238	1.2%	0	7,807	1.4%	0	4,107	0.5%	0	50,665	1.2%	0
	UF	—			—			38,115	5.4%	2	—			—			38,115	0.9%	2 ( 3)
Total		1,136,426	100%	36 ( 36)	989,673	100%	36 ( 36)	703,900	100%	36 ( 36)	552,247	100%	31 ( 32)	797,305	100%	36 ( 36)		100%	175 ( 176)

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Municipal elections

The municipal councils in all municipalities will be elected. Fifteen municipalities will be merged into seven, effective 1 January 2019, thus elections will be held for 300 rather than the current 308 municipalities. In each municipality, 7 to 55 councillors will be elected at-large depending on the population as of 1 January 2018. Councillors are elected for a six-year term, starting on the first working day in January following the elections, thus 2 January 2019.

Provincial capitals

More information Party, Antwerp ...

Party		Antwerp			Ghent			Leuven			Hasselt			Bruges
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	N-VA	99.657	35.3%	23 (1)	19.167	12.1%	6 (3)	13.331	22.2%	11 (2)	15.382	28.7%	12 (1)	9.573	11.7%	5 (4)
	CD&V	19.151	6.8%	3 (6)	13.979	8.8%	4 (4)	9.688	16.1%	8 (4)	11.233	20.9%	9 (3)	26.130	31.9%	17 (1)
	Groen	51.055	18.1%	11 (2)	53.179	33.5%	21 (1)*	11.848	19.7%	10 (3)	13.553	25.3%	11 (2)*	8.864	10.8%	5 (5)

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Provincial elections

The provincial councils of Namur, Walloon Brabant, Liège, Hainaut and Luxembourg were elected. The numbers of councillors are unchanged compared to 2012.

More information Party, Namur ...

Party		Namur			Walloon Brabant			Liège			Hainaut			Luxembourg			Total
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	PS	62,338	20.8%	8	33,686	14.2%	6	154,090	25.4%	15*	234,570	32.9%	26	29,603	17.6%	7	514,287	25.4%	62 ( 16)
	MR	76,080	25.4%	12	90,556	38.3%	16	136,805	22.5%	15*	133,321	18.7%	12	44,103	26.3%	12	480,865	23.7%	67 ( 7)
	Ecolo	51,558	17.2%	8	55,819	23.6%	9	98,986	16.3%	12	97,657	13.7%	11	24,464	14.6%	4	328,484	16.2%	44 ( 20)
	cdH	49,567	16.5%	6	21,010	8.9%	3	64,424	10.6%	6*	71,444	10.0%	4	53,182	31.7%	14	259,627	12.8%	33 ( 8)
	PTB	26,644	8.9%	1	0	0.0%	0	81,409	13.4%	6	85,060	11.9%	3	8,834	5.3%	0	201,947	10%	10 ( 8)
	DéFI	16,987	5.7%	2	17,691	7.5%	3	23,132	3.8%	0	29,172	4.1%	0	6,673	4.0%	0	93,655	4.6%	5 ( 3)
	PP	7,724	2.6%	0	7,227	3.1%	0	24,592	4.1%	0	21,599	3.0%	0	1,144	0.7%	0	62,286	3.1%	0
	Others	8,960	3.0%	0	10,638	4.5%	0	24,179	4.0%	0	41,337	5.8%	0	0	0.0%	0	85,114	4.2%	0
Total		607,617	100%	37	714,160	100%	37	253,117	100%	56	714,160	100%	56	168,003	100%	37	2,026,625	100%	223

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• * includes the councillors elected on the German-speaking lists^[50]

Municipal elections

The municipal councils in the 262 municipalities will be elected. In each municipality, 7 to 55 councillors will be elected at-large depending on the population as of 1 January 2018. Councillors are elected for a six-year term, starting on the first Monday in December following the elections, thus 3 December 2018.

A total of 5,370 municipal councillors are up for election, an increase of 64 compared to 2012 due to population increase.