Belgian local elections, 2018

Updated on Nov 05, 2023

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The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2018 will take place on Sunday 14 October 2018. They are organised by the respective regions:

Brussels with 19 municipalities

Flanders with 5 provinces and 308 municipalities

In the city of Antwerp, elections will also be held for its districts

Wallonia with 5 provinces and 262 municipalities

In the municipalities with language facilities of Voeren, Comines-Warneton and the 6 of the Brussels Periphery, the aldermen and members of the OCMW/CPAS council are directly elected.

Background

Although the laws governing local elections differ per region (Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia) and per level (provinces, municipalities, districts and OCMW/CPAS), they are all similar, with all of the elections being held on the same second Sunday of October for a six-year term.

Between the 2012 and 2018 local elections, elections were only held in May 2014 (European, federal and regional), giving an unusually long period without elections in Belgium. The next European, federal and regional elections would be held somewhere in May-June 2019, only a few months after the October 2018 local elections.

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

Brussels

The municipal councils in the 19 municipalities will be elected.

Provincial elections

The provincial councils of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders and Limburg will be elected. The Flemish Government intends to reduce the total number of provincial councillors from 351 to 175. Councillors are elected for a six-year term, starting on the first working day in December following the elections, thus 3 December 2018.

Municipal elections

The municipal councils in the 308 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 working day in January following the elections, thus 1 January 2019.

Aalst

Aalst (in East Flanders) is governed by a coalition of N-VA, CD&V and SD&P (a local social democratic party who split from sp.a, who no longer wished to support the coalition). Mayor is Christoph D'Haese (N-VA). Largest opposition party is Open Vld, who put forth Jean-Jacques De Gucht as main candidate.

Antwerp

Antwerp (in Antwerp) is governed by a coalition of N-VA, CD&V and Open Vld. Incumbent mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) is expected to run for a second term. CD&V will not form a joint list with sp.a as they did in the 2012 elections. Sp.a, which was previously in power for decades, is the largest opposition party in the 2013-2018 term. On 17 November 2016, CD&V announced that Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters will move from Puurs to Antwerp to be their main candidate. This will pit two of the most popular politicians against each other in the biggest city of Flanders. Secretary of State Philippe De Backer will be Open Vld's main candidate, whereas Filip Dewinter will again be the candidate of Vlaams Belang.

Bruges

Bruges (in West Flanders) is governed by a coalition of sp.a and CD&V, led by mayor Renaat Landuyt (sp.a). The largest opposition party is N-VA; Pol Van Den Driessche will be its main candidate.

Ghent

Ghent (in East Flanders) is governed by a coalition of sp.a-Groen and Open Vld. Daniël Termont (sp.a), mayor since 2006, announced he will step down at the end of the term. Tom Balthazar was selected to replace him as main candidate of sp.a, again in electoral alliance with Groen, but he resigned in February 2017 following the "Publipart" scandal. Sarah Claerhout was selected to be CD&V's candidate, but she also resigned for a different reason. Mathias De Clercq will remain the main candidate of Open Vld. Elke Sleurs will be N-VA's candidate.

Hasselt

Hasselt (in Limburg) is governed by a coalition of sp.a-Groen and CD&V. In 2016, Hilde Claes (sp.a) was forced to step down as mayor and was replaced by Nadja Vananroye (CD&V). N-VA is the largest opposition party.

Leuven

Leuven (in Flemish Brabant) is governed by a coalition of sp.a and CD&V. Louis Tobback (sp.a), mayor since 1995, announced he will step down at the end of the term. Mohamed Ridouani will replace him as main candidate of sp.a. The largest opposition parties are N-VA and Groen. CD&V's main candidate will be Carl Devlies, first alderman in Leuven, while N-VA's main candidate will be Lorin Parys, member of the Flemish Parliament.

Mechelen

Mechelen (in Antwerp) is governed by a coalition of Vld-Groen-m+, N-VA and CD&V, headed by mayor Bart Somers (Open Vld). The opposition parties are sp.a and Vlaams Belang.

Ostend

Incumbent mayor and Minister of State Johan Vande Lanotte (sp.a) announced he wants to run with a "citizens' movement". Flemish Minister Bart Tommelein (Open Vld) wants to challenge him as mayor.

Provincial elections

The provincial councils of Namur, Walloon Brabant, Liège, Hainaut and Luxembourg will be elected.

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.