Investigations into possible electoral fraud have been launched in three more Belgian municipalities following local elections on Sunday 13 October. Ten communes are now under investigation.
Koekelare (East Flanders) and two communes in Leuven (Flemish Brabant) have been added to the list of municipal electoral processes under investigation, VRT reported on Saturday.
Proxy voting has emerged as an issue under scrutiny following the ballot almost two weeks ago. An investigation into illegal proxy voting in Ninove (East Flanders) was announced on election day as it was discovered that the far-right party Vlaams Belang had asked residents to sign up for the scheme that allows one individual to vote in place of another.
Some of these votes were potentially falsified. It is legal to vote in another person's place but illegal for a political party to ask residents to do so.
Vlaams Belang went on to obtain an absolute majority for the first time in history.
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Since then, similar suspicions of irregularities have surfaced in Brakel, Turnhout, Veurne, Alken, Meise and Dilbeek (all in Flanders).
Koekelare, in West Flanders, has now been added to this list, with allegations of fraudulent proxy vote collection. 7% of votes were cast by proxy, an "unusual" figure according to a local election candidate VRT spoke to.
The Leuven Public Prosecutor’s Office has also confirmed it is investigating two cases of suspected procuration fraud but has not disclosed the specific municipalities involved.
