History
1831–1893: Census suffrage for male Belgian citizens
Census suffrage was in force since the creation of the Belgian state in 1831. The electoral system was written down in the Constitution of February 7, 1831 [7] and the Election law was written on March 3, 1831. [8] Only male citizens above 25 years old who paid a certain amount of tax had the right to vote, meaning in the national elections of 1831 only 46,000 Belgians were entitled to vote for the Chamber. [9] In fact, only 400 people were up for election for the 51 national mandates of senators. [10] In the beginning, the Belgian political landscape consisted only of Catholics and liberals, with no real developed party structure. Only later were the Liberal Party (1846) and the Catholic Party (1869) founded. [11] [12]
On March 12, 1848, a law was made that lowered the tax and made the terms uniform throughout the country. [8] The cumulation of the mandate of representative of the people or senator with an official function was also excluded. Finally, by law of July 9, 1877, the voting became secret.
1893–1918: General multiple compulsory voting for male Belgian citizens
After bloody strikes in Wallonia and pressure from the liberal progressists and the socialists, General multiple voting rights were introduced in 1893 under the Beernaert government. [13] [14] As a result, every male Belgian citizen of 25 years or older had at least one vote, one or two additional votes were possible either depending on his education, or according to the taxes he paid, or a combination of both. [9] The number of eligible voters increased tenfold from 137,772 to 1,370,687 with 853,628 voters with 1 vote, 293,679 voters with 2 votes and 223,381 with 3 votes. A voter could have a maximum of 3 votes. In total, 2,111,127 votes could be cast, with a minority of 517,060 voters (37.7%) having a majority of 1,257,499 votes (59.6%). [15]
Compulsory voting was introduced and the voting age was set at 25 years. Provincial senators were also elected for the first time. [15]
The first elections under this system took place on October 14, 1894, with the recently founded Belgian Workers' Party entering parliament for the first time with 28 seats. Despite these reforms, the Workers' Party continued to advocate general single suffrage. [14]
- Criteria for additional votes
An additional vote was possible for heads of households aged 35 or older who paid at least 5 francs in tax, owners of a building worth at least 2,000 francs or owners of savings accounts or government debt securities worth at least 100 francs. Two additional votes were awarded to holders of an upper secondary education diploma or higher. [15]
1921–1947: General single compulsory voting Belgian citizens
After the First World War, drastic changes in the political system were unstoppable. After the so-called Loppem Coup, King Albert I promised in his 1918 Speech from the Throne to introduce voting reform to suppress the pre-war system of plural voting. [9] This normally required a constitutional amendment, but they already wanted the next elections to take place under the new system. Under an ordinary law of May 9, 1919, the voting age was lowered from 25 to 21, each man had only one vote, and co-opted senators were elected for the first time. This was a measure that mainly favored the Catholics and the Socialists. The newly elected parliament made a constitutional amendment in 1920–1921 to regularize the situation. [16]
Whereas general single suffrage was hardly controversial for men, the situation was different for women. Liberals and socialists, despite the latter's support, feared that this would only strengthen the dominant position of Catholics because they believed that women were too much under the influence of the Church. The compromise was to make women compulsory to vote in municipal elections, which was done by law of April 15, 1920, and to provide the possibility of introducing this later for parliamentary elections with a law requiring a two-thirds majority. [17]
1948 – present: General single compulsory voting for all Belgian citizens
After the Second World War, the zeitgeist had progressed to such an extent that full women's suffrage had become inevitable. [9] Under the law of March 27, 1948, women were allowed to vote and were also allowed to stand for parliamentary elections; a few months later this followed for provincial council elections. On June 26, 1949, all women could participate in parliamentary elections for the first time. [18] [19]
Women still remained underrepresented in the Chamber of representatives and Senate relative to their share of the population. To reverse this situation, a system of affirmative action through quotas was introduced that stated that half of each electoral list must be made up of women. The first three places on the list must also include at least one person of the opposite sex. [9]
