With this vote, they have an opportunity to express their opinion about the management of their commune, about governance, the cleanliness of public spaces, the efficiency of the local registration services; in short, about local matters that affect citizens the most.
Foreign voters: make yourself heard!
This right is not automatic.
Foreign residents must register themselves as voters in their commune.
However, this right is not automatic. In order to take part in local elections, foreign residents must register themselves as voters in their commune. It’s a very simple process. All they need to do is to fill in a form and file it with their communal administration. This registration must imperatively take place before 31st July 2018, as communes will draft the final voters list on 1st August 2018.
Other than registering, foreign residents who wish to vote must be at least 18 years old and have their political and civil rights intact (i.e., not been stripped of those rights by a judicial condemnation).
You're from European Union
EU nationals must fill in a form and file it with their communal administration before the 31st July.
You're from outside the European Union
Non-EU nationals must fill in a specific form that adds two more conditions :
- They must prove that they have been legal residents in Belgium for five consecutive years (a settlement permission or an authorisation to reside in Belgium for a limited or unlimited period (white or yellow card)).
- They must sign a declaration by which they promise to abide the Belgian Constitution, Belgian laws and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Foreign residents
who register themselves
as voters
become obliged to vote
Registration is free. It is advised not to wait until the last moment, considering that communes sometimes take several days to transcribe the registrations and that the list of voters must be set on 1st August 2018.
Foreign residents, EU or non-EU, who register themselves as voters become obliged to vote, as are Belgian nationals. Those who registered themselves for the local elections of 2006 and 2012 don’t need to register again, even if they have moved to another commune; they will receive an electoral notification. Foreign residents can renounce their right to vote in local elections at any time simply by notifying their commune.
Registering to vote in Belgian local elections does not deprive foreign residents of their voting rights in their country of origin.