Belgian local elections, 2006

Last updated March 13, 2019

The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2006 took place on Sunday 8 October 2006. The electors have elected the municipal councillors of 589 cities and towns (308 in the Flemish Region, 262 in the Walloon Region and 19 in the Brussels-Capital Region) as well as the ten provincial councils. The voters in the town of Antwerp have also been able to vote for the city's district councils. In seven Flemish municipalities with a special language statute (Drogenbos, Kraainem, Linkebeek, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Wemmel, Wezembeek-Oppem and Voeren) and in the Walloon municipality of Comines-Warneton the aldermen and the members of the OCMW/CPAS council have also been directly elected.

The Flemish Region is one of the three regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders. It occupies the northern part of Belgium and covers an area of 13,522 km². It is one of the most densely populated regions of Europe with around 480 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Wallonia is a region of Belgium. As the southern portion of the country, Wallonia is primarily French-speaking, and accounts for 55% of Belgium's territory and a third of its population. The Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium, which is the political entity responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education, because the French Community of Belgium encompasses both Wallonia and the majority French-Speaking Brussels-Capital Region. The German-speaking minority in eastern Wallonia results from WWI and the subsequent annexation of three cantons that were initially part of the former German empire. This community represents less than 1% of the Belgian population. It forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues.

Antwerp Municipality in Flemish Community, Belgium

Antwerp is a city in Belgium, and is the capital of Antwerp province in Flanders. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium, and with 1,200,000 the second largest metropolitan region after Brussels.

It was the first municipal and provincial elections since the transfer of the competence with regards to the municipalities and provinces to the regions, also residents without E.U. citizenship could vote for the first time if they had registered to vote. The previous municipal and provincial elections took place on Sunday 8 October 2000.

City and provincial councillors are elected to a six-year term. Newly elected councillors will take office in January 2007, with a term ending in 2013.

Points of notice are the result of the governing federal government coalition (liberal/social-democrat) - for whom a bad result could spell defeat in the federal general elections to be held no later than June 2007 - and the result of the Vlaams Belang party in Antwerp and the other Flemish towns.

The Verhofstadt II Government was the federal government of Belgium from 12 July 2003 to 21 December 2007.

Vlaams Belang is a right-wing populist and Flemish nationalist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels of Belgium.

Organisation

The municipal and provincial elections of 2006 were the first of its kind to be organized by the Regions instead of the federal government. The competence with regards to the municipalities and provinces was transferred from the federation to the Regions by special law of 13 June 2001.

Official logo of the municipal and provincial elections in the Walloon Region

Official logo of the municipal and provincial elections in the Flemish Region

The Flemish minister of the Interior Marino Keulen announced that the results of the elections held in the Flemish Region would be available in real time on the official dedicated government website www.vlaanderenkiest.be.

Marino Ghislainus Keulen Belgian politician from Flanders and a member of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats party. He is a representative in the Flemish Parliament, and served in the Flemish Government of 2004-2009 as Minister of Home Affairs, Urban Policy, Housing and Civic Integration.

Municipal elections

These have taken place in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels Capital Region. The municipal councils were elected by a very rare form of party-list proportional representation, the Imperiali highest averages method.

Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, language, politics and history, and sometimes involving neighbouring countries. The demonym associated with Flanders is Fleming, while the corresponding adjective is Flemish. The official capital of Flanders is Brussels, although the Brussels Capital Region has an independent regional government, and the government of Flanders only oversees the community aspects of Flanders life in Brussels such as (Flemish) culture and education.

Party-list proportional representation family of voting systems

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections in which multiple candidates are elected through allocations to an electoral list. They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.

The parties presented themselves with lists of candidates. The number of candidates on the list usually was the total number of seats to be taken in the council. Each list received a random number, which was assigned by a lottery. Parties that had representatives in the regional parliaments, could receive a number that is the same in the entire region. Other parties' numbers varied from municipality to municipality. These numbers started after the regional numbers (8 and higher in Flanders, 14 and higher in Brussels, 6 and higher in Wallonia).

The regional list numbers:

Flemish Region^[1]	Brussels Region^[2]	Walloon Region
SP.a VLD Spirit N-VA Groen! Vlaams Belang CD&V	PS MR Groen! VLD-Vivant Vlaams Belang FDF CD&V MCC Ecolo Spirit Front National CdH N-VA	Front National Ecolo PS MR CdH

Provincial elections

These have taken place in Flanders and Wallonia. In the Brussels Capital Region no provincial elections were held as Brussels is not part of any Belgian province, the provincial competences almost entirely being assumed by the Region, the Agglomeration and the Community Commissions.

The list numbers used were the same as for the municipalities.

Polls

Flemish region

Het Laatste Nieuws

The polls conducted by the Stemmenkampioen site of Het Laatste Nieuws and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel,^[3] yielded the following overall result for Flanders, compared to the 2004 regional elections (the last column displays the difference between the latest polls and that result):

Het Laatste Nieuws is a Dutch language newspaper based in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded by Julius Hoste Sr. on 7 June 1888. It is now part of De Persgroep, and is the most popular newspaper in Flanders and Belgium.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel University in Brussels

The Vrije Universiteit Brussellisten (help·info) is a Dutch-speaking university located in Brussels, Belgium. It has four campuses: Brussels Humanities, Science and Engineering Campus, Brussels Health Campus, Brussels Technology Campus and Brussels Photonics Campus.

Party/Alliance	06/2004 (%)	12/2005 (%)	03/2006 (%)	05/2006 (%)	06/2006 (%)	09/2006 (%)	diff '04 (%)
CD&V - N-VA	26.1	30.9	31.7	30.7	30.6	31.1	+5.0
Vlaams Belang	24.2	26.8	27.4	28.2	28.9	28.2	+4.0
SP.a - Spirit	19.7	17.9	17.0	17.3	17.5	17.3	-2.4
VLD - Vivant	19.8	14.5	14.7	14.5	14.1	14.2	-5.6
Groen!	7.6	6.6	6.6	6.7	6.5	6.1	-1.5
Others	2.7	3.2	2.7	2.6	2.4	3.1	+0.4

The last poll not taking into account alliances dates from September 2006 and showed these results:^[4]

Party	Results (%)
Vlaams Belang	28.2
CD&V	23.3
SP.a	15.9
VLD	13.6
N-VA	7.8
Groen!	6.1
Spirit	1.4
Vivant	0.6
Others	3.1

Standaard - VRT

The latest poll by De Standaard and VRT yielded the following overall results for Flanders, compared to the 2004 regional elections (the last column displays the difference between the latest polls and that result):

Party/Alliance	06/2004 (%)	02/2006 (%)	06/2006 (%)	diff '04 (%)
CD&V - N-VA	26.1	29.1	29.4	+3.3
Vlaams Belang	24.2	22.5	23.1	-1.1
SP.a - Spirit	19.7	20.4	20.7	+1.0
VLD - Vivant	19.8	18.9	18.2	-1.6
Groen!	7.6	8.7	7.5	-0.1
Others	2.7	0.4	1.0	-1.7

Antwerp

Poll by the Gazet van Antwerpen and VRT, taken between 31 January and 23 February 2006, compared to the 2000 municipal elections (the last column displays the difference between the latest polls and that result):

Party	10/2000 (%)	02/2006 (%)	diff '00 (%)
Vlaams Belang - VLOTT	33.0	34.2	+1.2
SP.a - Spirit	19.5	23.8	+4.3
VLD - Vivant	18.5	12.9	-5.6
CD&V - N-VA	14.2	14.5	+0.3
Groen!	11.1	8.3	-2.8
Others	3.7	6.3	+2.6

July and September 2006 polls conducted by the Stemmenkampioen site of Het Laatste Nieuws and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel,^[3] yielded the following result for Antwerp, compared to the 2000 municipal elections (the last column displays the difference between the latest polls and that result):

Party	10/2000 (%)	07/2006 (%)	09/2006 (%)	diff '00 (%)
Vlaams Belang - VLOTT	33.0	34.2	38.6	+5.6
SP.a - Spirit	19.5	20.2	21.1	+1.6
VLD - Vivant	18.5	10.2	8.5	-10.0
CD&V - N-VA	14.2	19.4	16.6	+2.4
Groen!	11.1	7.2	6.2	-4.9
Others	3.7	8.8	9.0	-5.3

Walloon Region

A poll conducted by the RTBF and the Sud Presse in June 2006 showed the following results, compared to the 2000 municipal elections (the last column displays the difference between the latest polls and that result):^[5]

Charleroi

Party	10/2000 (%)	06/2006 (%)	diff '00 (%)
Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste)	51.4	31.9	-19.5
Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur)	16.1	23.1	+7.0
Humanist Democratic Centre (Centre Démocrate Humaniste)	9.6	14.9	+5.0
Ecolo	11.4	11.0	-0.4
National Front (Front National)	6.9	16.5	+9.6

Results

Flanders

Provinces

The provincial elections are the only 2006 elections that allow for a national comparison, since in municipal elections not all parties run in all municipalities.^[6]

Party		Votes	%	+/– (2000)	Seats	+/– (2000)
	Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V)–New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)	1,231,655	30.6	*	136	*
	Flemish Interest (VB)	879,046	20.7		88	34
	Socialist Party Different (SP.A)–Spirit	785,528	19.6		84	8
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD)–Vivant	745,952	18.9		80	27
	Green!	311,912	7.5		17	9
	Union of Francophones (UF)	54,733			6	0
	Other parties	57,782			—
Valid votes		4,584,584
Blanco and invalid votes
Total					411

	Antwerp	East Flanders	Flemish Brabant	Limburg	West Flanders	Total
Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V)–New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)	24	25	25	26	36	136
Flemish Interest (VB)	25	19	15	15	19	88
Socialist Party Different (SP.A)–Spirit	18	14	14	20	18	84
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD)–Vivant	13	22	17	14	14	80
Green!	4	4	7	0	2	17
Union of Francophones (UF)	−	−	6	−	−	6

Municipalities

Most important conclusions are that Vlaams Belang achieves status quo in large cities as Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent but advances strongly in the countryside. The CD&V-N-VA gains nearly everywhere, VLD and Groen! lose nearly everywhere. The VLD was able to consolidate where they put forth nationally known candidates, like Guy Verhofstadt in Ghent and Vincent Van Quickenborne in Kortrijk. The SP.A-Spirit puts strong results in cities like Antwerp, Ghent and Ostend but has mixed results in other places.

Most coalitions before the elections can continue with a stronger backing, most notably in Ghent and Mechelen. An exception to this general 'rule' is Vilvoorde, where former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene loses his majority.