Belgians vote for new regional, federal, European parl'ts

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, May 26 (KUNA) -- Belgians began voting Sunday to elect the country's national and regional parliaments, as well as Members of the European Parliament.
Some 8.1 million Belgians are registered to vote and voting is compulsory by law. Failure to vote without a valid reason could result in a fine.
As all the three elections coincide, their result could produce big changes in Belgian politics and they have been dubbed as the "Mother of all elections", commented the Flanders news website.
A total of 150 members of the national parliament are being elected today, beside 124 members of the regional Flemish Parliament, 75 members of the regional Walloon Parliament, 89 members of the Brussels Parliament, 25 members of the Parliament of the German Language Community Parliament and 21 members of the European Parliament.
Those voting the traditional way with pencil and ballot paper will have to cast their ballot between 8:00 am and 2:00 pm local time, while those voting online will have until 4:00 pm to cast their votes.
Belgium is linguistically divided into a Dutch speaking (called Flemish in Belgium) northern region of Flanders and the French speaking Wallonia region. A small German speaking community lives in east Belgium.
The national government is made up of Francophone and Flemish liberals, Flemish Christian democrats and the Flemish nationalists who quit the government last December and the country is being run currently by a caretaker government. (end)
nk.hb

MENAFN2605201900710000ID1098571217