Half of Brusselers didn't vote
Half the population of Brussels did not cast a valid vote in last May's general election even though voting is compulsory in Belgium. Fresh figures show that half the people of Brussels either cast a blank ballot, did not turn up or weren't eligible to vote.
BELGA/JANSENS
For Belgium as a whole only 15.7% of registered voters voted blank or did not attend a polling place.
In all 1,256,219 registered voters failed to vote or cast a blank or invalid ballot last May. In addition a growing number of Belgian residents don't have the vote because they do not possess Belgian nationality. 9.9% of Belgian residents can't vote in parliamentary elections because they do not hold Belgian nationality.
Over two million people in Belgium of voting age did not cast a valid ballot last May.
The figures are contained in research carried out by Filip De Maesschalck for the monthly Sampol and which throws up questions about the representative nature of our elections.