Editing Politics of Belgium (section)

===Electoral system===
The election for the Belgian Chamber of Representatives is based on a system of [[open list]] [[proportional representation]]. Several months before an election, each party forms a list of candidates for each district. Parties are allowed to place as many candidates on their lists as there are seats available. The formation of the list is an internal process that varies with each party. The place on the list is considered to play a role in the election of a candidate, by giving stronger visibility to those high on the list; this phenomenon, however, seems to have lost importance since the last electoral reform.

Belgian voters are given five options. They may:
* Vote for a list as a whole, thereby showing approval of the order established by the party;
* Vote for one or more individual candidates, regardless of his/her ranking on the list (a "preference vote");
* Vote for one or more of the "alternates" (substitutes);
* Vote for one or more candidates, and one or more alternates;
* Vote invalid or blank so no one receives the vote.

While there are some options to vote on more than one person, voters cannot vote for candidates of more than one candidate list (party). Doing so makes the vote invalid.

Political campaigns in Belgium are relatively short, lasting only about one month. They are subjected to several limitations:
* There are restrictions on the use of [[billboard (advertising)|billboards]].
* For all of their activities, campaigns included, the political parties have to rely on government subsidies and dues paid by their members.
* An electoral expenditures law restricts expenditures during the campaign.

Belgium is one of the few countries that has [[compulsory voting]], thus having one of the highest rates of [[voter turnout]] in the world.<ref>[[Voter turnout|Election turnout]] in national lower house elections from 1960 to 1995, numbers from Mark N. Franklin's "Electoral Participation."</ref>

Elections for the Chamber of Representatives (Federal Parliament) are normally held every five years and coincide with those for the [[European Parliament]]. Before 2014, they were held every four years and were held separately.
The community and regional parliaments are elected every five years, and their elections coincide with those for the European Parliament as well.
Elections for the members of Belgium's municipal and provincial councils are held every six years.

The [[2018 Belgian local elections|latest municipal and provincial elections]] were held in 2018 and the latest [[2019 Belgian federal election|federal]] and [[2019 Belgian regional elections|regional elections]] were held in 2019.