Google Doodle today marks Belgium National Elections 2024

Google released a Doodle on Sunday, June 9, in the wake of Belgium National Elections 2024. Citizens of the country will cast their vote today to elect the 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives for a term of five years. Meanwhile, European and regional elections are slated to occur on the same day

The Google Doodle depicts a ballot box marked with Belgium National flag. The tricolour flag displaying the national colours of Belgium, consists of three equal vertical bands - black, yellow, and red. The colours of the flag are symbolic as red symbolises the red lion of Hainaut, Limburg and Luxembourg; yellow represents the yellow lion of Brabant; and the black colour represents black lion of Flanders and Namur.

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Today polling will kick-off at 8:00 am and will conclude by 2:00 pm, or until 4pm in places where voting will be done electronically.

In 2019, last federal elections were conducted in Belgium. To lead a seven-party coalition government, it took around 18 months before a new prime minister could be finally be sworn in. In 2010, the wait was even longer when the country broke a world record and took 541 days to form a government.

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Belgian citizens aged 16 or above are eligible to cast their votes. Those people who have European Union citizenship but are Non-Belgian citizens residing in the country are not permitted to vote. However Belgian citizens living overseas can register to vote.

Electronic voting will be conducted in all 19 Brussels municipalities, 9 German-speaking municipalities, and 159 Flemish municipalities. Meanwhile, paper ballots will be used in 141 Flemish municipalities and all 253 non-German-speaking Walloon municipalities.

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The country is divided along linguistic lines with Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and francophone Wallonia in the south. Thus, governments are usually formed by coalitions made of parties from both regions.

According to opinion polls, two Flemish nationalist parties are set to gather the largest shares of votes in Flanders. The far-right Vlaams Belang is expected to win over 25 percent vote share. The right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) is expected to follow close behind with around 20 percent vote share.