Belgian federal election, 2014
The next election for the Belgian Chamber of Representatives will take place as the 2014 European elections on 25 May 2014, and thus on the same day. At the same time the Flemish Parliament and the parliaments of Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Community are re-elected.
Initial situation
After the election of 13 June 2010 attracted eleven parties in the Chamber of Deputies a six Dutch-speaking and French-speaking parties five. In Flanders, the nationalist N -VA became the largest party, followed by the Christian Democrat CD & V The Socialist sp.a and the liberal Open Vld were third - or fourth- largest party; the smaller parties were the right-wing Vlaams Belang, the ecological Groen and the libertarian small party LDD.
In the south ( Wallonia ), the Socialist PS received the most votes, followed by the liberal MR, the Christian Democratic CDH, the ecological Ecolo and a small party, the Parti Populaire.
Innovations
On January 31, 2014 several constitutional amendments came into force. This does not directly elected members of the Senate in the future more and hence will no longer simultaneously with the election of the Chamber of Deputies also held an election of senators. The legislature was extended from four to five years, and the election of the Chamber of Deputies to take place in the future in parallel with the European elections.
The controversial, language barriers border constituency of Brussels-Halle -Vilvoorde was dissolved.
For the first time since 1991 takes the FDF, formerly part of the French-speaking Liberals, again independently on.
Electoral system
Each province and the Brussels Capital Region, which belongs to no one more province since 1995, each form a constituency. In each constituency, the seats according to the d' Hondt method are distributed proportionally. There is a 5 % threshold. In the smaller constituencies, it is possible that a party with a share of the vote receives well over 5 % no seat.
This scheme was introduced in 2002, was not yet in the elections in 2003, 2007 and 2010 in the territory of the former province of Brabant. After dissolution of the electoral district of Brussels-Halle -Vilvoorde there from the election again in 2014 a uniform electoral system for the whole country. However, the residents of six belonging to Flemish Brabant municipalities can vote for a list in the constituency of Brussels.
The number of representatives per constituency is defined by the constitution every 10 years according to the population figures (including foreigners) by royal decree. Because Brussels has an above-average proportion of foreigners, there the number of voters per seat is smaller than in the rest of the country. According to the Royal Decree of 31 January 2013, the seats are distributed as follows over the constituencies:
- Brussels -Capital Region 15 seats
Flanders ( Total 87 seats)
- West Flanders Province 16 seats
- East Flanders province 20 seats
- Antwerp 24 seats
- Limburg Province 12 seats
- Province of Flemish Brabant 15 seats
Wallonia ( total of 48 seats)
- Province of Walloon Brabant 5 seats
- Hainaut province 18 seats
- Namur 6 seats
- Luxembourg Province 4 seats
- Liege 15 seats
Each voter can choose a list, either by selecting the list as a whole or are each a preference vote in a list as many applicants.