Belgium decided last year that 16- and 17-year-olds will be allowed to vote in the European elections next year, but only after they register to do so. Now, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that registration is no longer obligated.
On 9 June 2024, Belgium's federal and regional elections will take place, as will the European ones. For the latter elections, Belgium lowered the voting age from 18 to 16 and introduced a registration system for this purpose.
While voting is compulsory in Belgium from the age of 18, this is not the case for 16- and 17-year-olds. Therefore, the system set up by Federal Government would have allowed young people wishing to participate to register. Once registered, voting would then be compulsory.
'Political maturity'
The new system had been set up with the mind of having an estimate of how many people would show up to cast a vote.
As adults are theoretically obligated by law to make their way to the polling booths, the authorities know how many voters to expect. There is no obligation for 16 and 17-year-olds, however, which is why the registration system would serve to keep track of those planning to show up.
However, the Constitutional Court has now overturned that registration system after a complaint had been filed by an adult Belgian who felt that the right to vote for under-18s should be abolished altogether due to a lack of "political maturity."
The court did not follow that reasoning and ruled that while 16-year-olds are indeed mature enough to vote, it is "not reasonably justified" to make their right to vote dependent on such registration.
In response to the ruling, Interior Affairs Minister Annelies Verlinden is now looking into how to change the system as it seems like 16- and 17-year-olds will be given the right to vote without registration, meaning they will be able to choose whether to go to the polling booth at the last minute. For the whole of Belgium, it concerns some 280,000 young people.
