Reserved seats (Area of Brussels-Capital)

The Région of Brussels-Capital was equipped in 1989 with a District council with 75 members elected with the Vote for all, renamed later on Parlement.

Previously, another institution corresponding to the same territory, the Agglomeration of Brussels, also comprised an elected assembly, the Council of agglomeration. This last had actually known only one election, in 1971, where the difficulty of the representation of the Flemish minority had arisen.

Since the creation of this assembly in 1989, each list must choose its linguistic category, the candidates of a list must all belong to the same linguistic mode (to have asked an indentity card in Dutch their municipal authorities, without more), and any candidate cannot later on the being on a list of the other linguistic group. This rule was introduced at the request of the Flemish parties, scalded by the experiment of 1971 with the Council of agglomeration of Brussels where a French-speaking party, FDF, had presented a Flemish list (" Flamands" forgery; according to the Flemish parties, of " Inhabitant of Brussels bilingues" or of " Flemings modérés" according to the FDF) in order to increase its representation.

At the time of the regional elections of 1989, 1995 and 1999, it appeared that the number of seats obtained by the Flemish lists was not stable, since it depended only on the score of the Flemish lists, and to the elected officials to correctly fill their tasks within the Flemish Community Commission was not enough important to make it possible (VGC, mini-Parliament of the Flemings of Brussels), some of them in addition meant also to sit at the Flemish Parlement, which comprised seats reserved for regional deputies of Brussels Dutch-speaking co-opted by their pars.

The Agreement of Lombard, concluded the April 29th 2001, and in particular concretized in the special laws of the July 13rd 2001, increased the full number of regional deputies of Brussels up to 89, making it possible to hold 17 seats for the Flemish minority without making an attempt too much on the rule proportional. The elected officials of Brussels of the Flemish Parliament as for them from now on are separately elected. The first elections according to this system took place the June 13rd 2004.

Since 1989, the electoral rules concerning the voters and the candidates however were not modified:

each voter of Brussels (of Belgian nationality and 18 years old the day of the vote) has the right to vote for the list of its choice, and within this list for the box of head (vote for the party, thus approving the order of the candidates) or for a candidate (S)
each list of candidates must choose his linguistic, French-speaking or Dutch-speaking role, and comprise only candidates who

obtained from their municipal authorities an indentity card in the language of the role of the list, meaning that they asked so that this language be that in which administration to them
is addressed were never candidates on a list of the other linguistic role

In practice, that means that French-speaking voter can vote for a Dutch-speaking list, and vice versa, and that a candidate does not have any obligation to speak the language corresponding to the linguistic role about his list. In 1999 in particular, being given success four years earlier of the party of extreme right-hand side Vlaams Blok near French-speaking voters, several French-speaking candidates presented themselves on lists of Flemish democratic parties by inviting the French-speaking voters to make stopping with the extreme right-hand side. The risk existed indeed that Vlaams Blok gains, thanks to the contribution of French-speaking voices, the majority within the Dutch-speaking linguistic group within the regional Parliament, and thus automatically obtains half of the seats at the regional government, as the legislation envisages it governing the work of the institutions of this area.

External bond

Official site of the Parliament of Brussels

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