The outgoing Brussels Government has decided to hold the new municipal elections in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode on Sunday 9 February 2025. However, Mayor Emir Kir is appealing against that decision.
Kir's Liste du Bourgmestre won the municipal elections in October with 50.5% of the vote, but the results were declared invalid after "irregularities" with proxy votes were discovered. New elections will be organised.
According to the Municipal Electoral Code, this must happen within 50 days of the annulment of the elections (19 November in this case). Therefore, Kir and his office wanted to organise the re-run on Sunday 5 January – the last day of the Christmas holidays.
However, that date is not feasible because the municipality has not yet made all the preparations, according to the Brussels Region. The date for the new municipal elections in Saint-Josse was therefore set for 9 February 2025.
Risking a new cancellation
But Kir announced on Friday that he was lodging an appeal with the Council of State, stating that this date is not in line with the Municipal Electoral Code and that he is worried those elections would therefore be cancelled again.
"The Brussels Government waited until 5 December to set the date for the new ballot, even though the previous one was cancelled on 19 November," Kir told Belga News Agency. "This is much longer than the time taken by the Walloon Government to set the date for the new vote within this timeframe, in Neufchâteau in 2019."
He stressed that it whether it is 5 January or 9 February makes "little to no difference" for him, but he wants to avoid any risk of another cancellation. "And we do not accept being strung along for days on end."
