Belgian municipal elections: who is allowed to vote

Municipal elections in Belgium are open to Belgians aged 18 who are listed in the population register of their municipality, and to foreign residents, EU or non-EU, who have applied to be added to the electoral roll. Belgians have nothing to do. Everyone else has to register, and the deadline falls on 31 July of the election year.

That asymmetry explains most of the confusion. Many pages about voter registration describe the French system, where everyone applies, nationals included. In Belgium the paperwork falls on foreign residents only.

Who can vote in Belgian municipal elections?

Four cumulative conditions, identical in all three Regions for Belgian voters: hold Belgian nationality by polling day at the latest, be 18 on that same day, be listed in the population register of the municipality, and not fall under any exclusion or suspension of civil and political rights. In Wallonia they sit in article L4121-1 of the Code of Local Democracy and Decentralisation, the regional code that governs local government there. In Brussels they sit in article 1 of the municipal electoral law coordinated on 4 August 1932.

One detail almost always disappears from the summaries. The age of 18 is assessed on polling day, not on the date the roll is closed: the municipal college therefore has to include young people who turn 18 between 1 August and election day, something the handbook of the Public Service of Wallonia spells out to municipal administrations.

Foreign residents go through one extra step. The right has been open to them since the 2006 poll, but it only takes effect after a voluntary, personal application. Here is the table of formalities as it reads for the next election.

The declaration of commitment asked of non-EU nationals covers respect for the Constitution, the laws of the Belgian people and the European Convention on Human Rights. It is set by the royal decree of 13 January 2006.

Do Belgians have to register on the electoral roll?

No, never.

The municipal college draws up the voter register itself, from the population register. In Wallonia, article L4122-2 of the CDLD sets the operation on 1 August of the renewal year, on the basis of the situation as at 31 July. In Brussels, article 3 of the 1932 law says the same thing in almost the same words. Flanders also uses 1 August as the reference date for residence.

That date carries a practical consequence many people discover in October: moving house after 1 August does not move the voter. You vote in your former municipality, for candidates who will not be yours for the next six years. A complaint against a registration or an omission can still be lodged with the college up to the twelfth day before the election, as the Walloon local elections FAQ points out.

Registering without Belgian nationality, step by step

The procedure comes down to six moves, described by the federal Interior Ministry and detailed in its instructions to municipalities.

1. Check which register you are in. You must appear in the population register or the foreigners register on 1 August of the election year. The waiting register does not count, which rules out anyone still holding a registration certificate, the orange card, on that date.
2. Pick a channel. Three equivalent routes: the online form at inscription.elections.fgov.be, the counter of your municipality of residence, or the post. In Brussels as in Wallonia it is the municipality of main residence that handles the application, never the Region. By post, the absence of an identity document copy cannot justify a refusal, as the Interior Ministry tells its administrations in so many words.
3. Fill in the official form. Two separate models exist, one for EU nationals, one for non-EU nationals.
4. Sign the declaration of commitment, non-EU nationals only.
5. Wait for the decision of the college of mayor and aldermen, which approves or rejects the application by a formal act.
6. Check your polling card in the weeks before the poll.

What is the deadline for the 13 October 2030 poll?

31 July 2030 for the application. That is not the only calendar lock, and the second one bites harder than the first.

The registration window reopened on 14 October 2024, the day after the last poll, and closes on 31 July 2030: two thousand one hundred and sixteen days. Between 1 August and election day no registration is possible at all, since the roll is closed.

The second lock applies to non-EU residents. The condition of five uninterrupted years of legal residence is assessed on the date of the application. An application filed on the very last day, 31 July 2030, therefore assumes legal residence starting on 31 July 2025 at the latest, exactly five years earlier. For a non-EU resident, the start date of legal residence that counts for the 2030 poll thus falls in the summer of 2025 at the latest. One further subtlety, rarely flagged: an order to leave the territory wipes out earlier periods of residence, and the five-year count starts again from zero.

Six situations that cancel a registration already granted

Approval granted once holds for every later poll, with no new application. That does not make it permanent.

• Being struck off the register and then returning cancels the status of voter: the municipality has to remove the entry, and a fresh application becomes necessary.
• Leaving for another country and then coming back has the same effect, even if the absence was short.
• Successfully contesting a removal, by contrast, leaves the registration intact.
• Time spent on a registration certificate during an application for international protection that ends in refusal does not count towards the five years.
• Time covered by an annex 35, during an appeal before the Council for Alien Law Litigation, is in principle not counted either.
• A written renunciation blocks any new application until the day after the election following the one held after the initial approval. Reversing that choice is not immediate.

How many foreign residents registered in 2024?

A little more than one in seven. Figures closed on 1 August 2024 by the federal Interior Ministry, reported by RTBF and Belga on 20 August 2024, give 162,817 registrations out of 1,064,506 foreign residents of voting age, or 15.30 per cent.

The gap between territories is wider than the gap between statuses. Among EU nationals, 24.6 per cent in Wallonia against 10.4 in Flanders, a spread of 14.2 points; between EU and non-EU nationals nationwide the difference is only 4.4 points. The registration rule is federal and strictly identical from one municipality to the next.

What if the polling card never arrived?

It goes out on the fifteenth day before the poll at the latest, in Wallonia as in Brussels. Article L4124-1 of the CDLD and article 21 of the 1932 law set the same deadline, and the notice of convocation is published at least twenty days ahead.

If the letter could not be delivered, it is left at the municipal administration, where the voter can collect it until noon on election day. Both texts say so. In Flanders the document changed nature in 2024: municipalities now send an invitation letter rather than a summons, since compulsory voting has been lifted there, as VRT NWS documented.

Do I have to vote if I live in Wallonia or Brussels?

Yes. Article L4111-1 of the CDLD states that voting is compulsory, and the obligation covers everyone on the electoral roll, approved foreign residents included. In Flanders the obligation no longer applies since the 2024 poll. The political debate on that point is covered in our comparison of compulsory voting.

For what happens after the ballot goes in the box, the calculation that turns votes into seats is explained in our article on the D'Hondt method. The ranking and the comparator place the parties theme by theme, and the methodology is a reminder that published scores describe a position on an axis, never a quality or a league table of merit.

Sources: Federal Public Service Home Affairs, Elections Directorate, How to register and instructions to municipalities on registering citizens without Belgian nationality, 13 October 2024 poll; Code of Local Democracy and Decentralisation, articles L4111-1, L4121-1, L4122-2 and L4124-1; municipal electoral law coordinated on 4 August 1932, articles 1, 3, 7 and 21; Public Service of Wallonia, who can vote in local elections, local elections FAQ and handbook on electoral operations for municipalities; VRT NWS, end of compulsory voting in Flemish local elections, 12 October 2024; Brussels-Capital Region, municipal elections; Federal Public Service Home Affairs, registration of EU citizens for European elections; RTBF with Belga, registration rates of foreign residents as at 1 August 2024, 20 August 2024; law of 13 August 2023 amending the municipal electoral law for British citizens; royal decree of 13 January 2006. The durations and cut-off dates calculated for the 2030 poll assume the rules stay as they are today.