The elections followed the2014 elections and were shortly after the2018 local elections, which indicated voters' tendencies after an unusually long period of time without any elections in Belgium.
The regional parliaments have limited power over their own election; federal law largely regulates this and the federal government organises the elections, which occur per Article 117 of theConstitution on the same day as theEuropean Parliament elections.
As such, all regional parliaments were elected using proportional representation under theD'Hondt method. Only Belgian citizens in Belgium had the right to vote, andvoting was mandatory for them. Belgians living abroad were allowed to vote in European and federal elections, but not in regional elections.
The following timetable is fixed for the simultaneous European, federal and regional elections:
26 January 2019
Start of the "waiting period" (sperperiode) running until the day of the election, during which political propaganda and expenses are strictly regulated
124 members of theFlemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Limburg) each were a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party could also vote in the Flemish election.
The incumbentBourgeois Government was made up of a coalition of Flemish nationalists (N-VA), Christian democrats (CD&V) and liberals (Open Vld). The incumbentMinister-President wasGeert Bourgeois (N-VA). The three-party centre-right government coalition had a comfortable majority.
In theOctober 2018 local elections, no major shifts occurred, although N-VA and sp.a lost some support while Vlaams Belang and Groen generally gained votes. CD&V and Open Vld remained stable.
Incumbent Minister-President Bourgois (N-VA) contended in the simultaneous European Parliament elections; N-VA presidentBart De Wever (N-VA) was their party's candidate to succeed him as head of the Flemish Government. MinisterHilde Crevits was CD&V's candidate for Minister-President. Open Vld explicitly did not put forward a candidate.
75 members of theWalloon Parliament were elected. The members were elected in multi-memberarrondissement-based constituencies; the Walloon Parliament is the only parliament in Belgium still using this geographical level for constituencies. A January 2018 law however reduced the constituencies from 13 to 11, following a successful challenge byEcolo to theConstitutional Court that constituencies with too few seats are unrepresentative. Both Luxembourg constituencies were merged and the Hainaut constituencies were redrawn.
After the 2014 elections, a coalition government of theSocialist Party (PS) andChristian democrats (cdH) was formed. In 2017 however, following major scandals involving mainly PS, cdH opted to continue governing with MR as the main party instead of PS.Willy Borsus (MR) succeededPaul Magnette (PS) asMinister-President of Wallonia in July 2017. This was the first time a government majority changed during a legislative term of a Belgian regional government.[9]
All 89 members of theParliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. They were electedat-large, but there were separate Dutch-language party lists (electing 17 members) and French-language party lists (electing 72 members). Those voting for a Dutch-language party could also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.
In the 2014–2019 period, the government was made up of regionalist ProDG, the socialist party and the liberal PFF, headed by Minister-PresidentOliver Paasch (ProDG).
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