Saint-Josse election re-run set for 9 February

The re-run of municipal elections in Saint-Josse following evidence of fraud will still take place on 9 February following a decision from the Belgian Council of State.

Contested victor and incumbent mayor Emir Kir said his party is “ready to make our victory even more resounding”, Bruzz reports.

Results from the Brussels municipality’s election were deemed invalid due to irregularities with several proxy votes.

The Brussels government chose 9 February for the new election date, but Kir wanted people to vote on 5 January, the last Sunday of the Christmas holidays.

According to Kir, that was the only date that complies with the rules of the municipal electoral code, which stipulates that elections must be held within 50 days of the announcement of the results cancellation by the courts.

Because the announcement was made on 19 November, the new elections should take place by 8 January at the latest.

But Brussels minister for local government Minister Clerfayt (Défi) said 5 January was not possible, as there must be sufficient time between the submission of the lists and the election.

“To vote on that date, the call to submit candidate lists should have been made as early as 3 December,” Clerfayt said. As that was not the case, it would have been impossible for candidates to submit the lists on time.

In the Council of State’s examination of the issue regarding the scheduling of the repeat election, it determined that the Brussels region is responsible for planning it and that it was not enough for the municipality to simply believe the decision is illegal, but rather they must also clarify what damage it causes.

Because the municipality has not done so, the Council of State said it would not accede to Kir's request to suspend the new date of 9 February.

8 January is now the deadline for the municipality to send the new polling cards to voters. The chairpeople of the polling stations will be appointed on 10 January and the participating parties must submit their lists by 12 January at the latest.

New parties that collected enough signatures to participate in the elections in October will now have to do so again. Team Fouad Ahidar's list thus has another month to collect 100 signatures.

Jonas Declercq of the regional local government administration said it was too early to say whether additional checks will be carried out this time to prevent fraud, especially on the use of proxies, noting that “we are still looking internally at how we will handle that”.