Federal elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected, whereas the Senate was no longer directly elected following the 2011–2012 state reform. These were the first elections held under King Philippe's reign.

Date As part of the state reform adopted 19 December 2013, the date of election will from now on coincide with the European elections,Proposal for a revision of the Belgian Constitution, senate.be which the Council of the EU has scheduled for 22–25 May 2014.COUNCIL DECISION 2013/299/EU, Euratom of 14 June 2013 fixing the period for the eighth election of representatives to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, published on 21 June 2013 by the Official Journal of the European Union, L 169/69 The regional elections in Belgium already constitutionally coincide with the European elections, consequently Belgians will vote for three elections on the same day.

On 25 April 2014, a declaration to amend the Constitution was adopted, formally dissolving parliament and triggering new elections within 40 days.25 AVRIL 2014. - Déclaration de révision de la Constitution, Belgian Official Journal

Electoral system

The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives are elected in 11 multi-member constituencies, being the ten provinces and Brussels, with between 4 and 24 seats. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method, with an electoral threshold of 5% per constituency.Electoral system IPU Apportionment of seats is done every ten years, last by royal order of 31 January 2013, based on the population figures of 28 May 2012.

Representatives elected from the five Flemish Region provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belong to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five provinces of Wallonia, Hainaut (18), Liège (15), Luxembourg (4), Namur (6) and Walloon Brabant (5), form the French-speaking language group. The 15 members elected in Brussels may choose to join either group, though de facto only French-speaking parties reach the threshold.

The 60-member Senate is composed of 50 representatives from the regional and community parliaments, plus 10 co-opted senators proportionally divided among parties based on the result of the federal election.

Voters All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over are obligated to participate in the election. Foreigners residing in Belgium (regardless of EU citizenship) cannot vote, whereas Belgian citizens living abroad may register to vote. Following the sixth state reform, they can no longer freely choose in which constituency their vote counts; instead the municipality is objectively defined by statutory criteria. Since the previous elections were snap elections, there was more preparation time now, allowing for significantly increased use of the option compared to 2010.

The electoral roll was fixed per 1 March 2014.

2014 2010 Difference Eligible Belgians residing in Belgium 7,879,874 7,725,463 +154,411 (+2.00%) Eligible Belgians residing abroad 128,902 42,089 +86,813 (+206.26%)  - voted in-person or by proxy in a municipality in Belgium 20,241 9,741 +10,500 (+107.79%)  - voted in-person or by proxy in the Belgian diplomatic or consular post where they registered 19,080 13,089 +5,991 (+45.77%)  - voted by mail 89,581 19,259 +70,322 (+365.14%) Total 8,008,776 7,767,552 +241,224 (+3.11%)

151 Flemish municipalities and 2 Brussels municipalities voted electronically; the remaining 157 Flemish and 17 Brussels and all 262 Walloon municipalities voted by paper ballot.

Timetable 25 February Start of the "waiting period" (sperperiode) running until the day of the election, during which political propaganda and expenses are strictly regulated 1 March The electoral roll is fixed by municipal authorities 25 April The Parliament adopts a declaration to amend the Constitution, formally dissolving parliament and triggering elections within 40 days 10 May Final day for the official announcement of the election and the convocation letter to voters 21 May Polling day for Belgians residing abroad in the embassies and consular posts 25 May Polling day (from 8am until 2pm, or until 4pm where voting is done electronically) 19 June Constitutive session of the newly elected Chamber of Representatives

Background and reforms since last election

The previous 2010 election resulted in a victory for Flemish nationalist N-VA. The coalition formation stalemate went on for a record-breaking 541 days. Eventually, the negotiating parties agreed upon a sixth Belgian state reform and the Di Rupo Government was finally formed on 6 December 2011 and comprised PS, MR, CD&V, Open VLD, sp.a and cdH.

The state reform has the following consequences for the election in 2014: The controversial electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde no longer exists; rather, each province plus the federal capital now has its own constituency, and voter discrimination has been abolished. The Senate will no longer be directly elected. The term length will be increased from 4 years to 5 years, and the election will always coincide with the European Parliament election.

Election campaign The campaign topics largely focused on socio-economic reforms: job creation and unemployment, tax reform, pensions, ... This campaign also featured an unprecedented level of quantified programmes by political parties. For example, the N-VA released its "V plan" and CD&V its "3D plan".

One week before the election day, former CD&V Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene suddenly died while in France. Several debates were cancelled, and CD&V as well as all other Flemish parties suspended their campaign for a few days.

Jewish Museum shooting On 24 May, the day before the elections, a shooting occurred at the Belgian Jewish Museum in Brussels, with three people reported dead. Self-described anti-Zionist MP Laurent Louis suggested that the attack could be a false flag operation seeking to discredit him and his political party (Debout les Belges, or "Stand Up, Belgians") on the eve of the elections.

Political parties

Current situation In 2010, ten parties won seats in the Belgian Senate: Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V), Centre Démocrate Humaniste (cdH), Socialistische Partij Anders (sp.a), Parti Socialiste (PS), Open Vld, Mouvement Réformateur (MR), Groen, Ecolo, New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and Vlaams Belang. In the Chamber of Representatives, the People's Party (PP) and Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD) each also won one seat.

During the legislation, the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) separated from the MR party and are now represented in the Chamber with 3 representatives, but have no Senators. The PP Member of Parliament left the party and became an independent. One Vlaams Belang member of the Chamber and one Vlaams Belang member of the Senate left their party and decided to become independents.

Thus, currently the ten major parties are represented in both the Chamber and the Senate; in addition, LDD and FDF are represented in the Chamber of Representatives.

However, most of the major parties only operate in the Dutch-speaking or in the French-speaking constituencies. Voters who live in the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant, Limburg or West Flanders can only vote for CD&V, Groen, N-VA, Open VLD, sp.a and Vlaams Belang, apart from the minor parties – except when a French-speaking party would present a list in one of these provinces, which has not happened except for a FDF and a PP list in Flemish Brabant. In the provinces of Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg, Namur and Walloon Brabant, voters can only vote for cdH, Ecolo, MR and PS, apart from the minor parties – except when a Dutch-speaking party would present a list in one of these provinces, which has not happened in this elections.

In the constituency of Liège, the German-speaking parties CSP, Ecolo, PFF and SP all form one list with their French-speaking counterparts; the name of these lists only mention the French-speaking party. Therefore, the CSP politicians are on the cdH list, the Ecolo ones on the Ecolo list, PFF on the MR list and SP on the PS list. The other German-speaking parties (ProDG and Vivant) do not present a list due to their marginal chance of getting a seat in Parliament.

In the constituency of Brussels-Capital, Ecolo and Groen formed one list under the name Ecolo. CD&V, N-VA, Open Vld, sp.a and Vlaams Belang will each present a single list.

LDD only presented a list in West Flanders. FDF presented a list in all Walloon constituencies, in Brussels-Capital and in Flemish Brabant. PVDA-PTB presented a list in all eleven constituencies of Belgium, making it one of the few parties which are represented in the whole of Belgium.

Main candidates

The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker / tête de liste) per constituency.

Dutch-speaking constituencies Party Major parties CD&V Servais Verherstraeten Pieter De Crem Koen Geens Wouter Beke Hendrik Bogaert Benjamin Dalle Groen Meyrem Almaci Stefaan Van Hecke Anne Dedry Katrijn Conjaerts Wouter De Vriendt Annalisa Gadaleta(3rd on ECOLO list) N-VA Bart De Wever Siegfried Bracke Theo Francken Steven Vandeput Brecht Vermeulen Luc Demullier Open Vld Annemie Turtelboom Alexander De Croo Maggie De Block Patrick Dewael Vincent Van Quickenborne Thomas Ryckalts sp.a Monica De Coninck Karin Temmerman Hans Bonte Peter Van Velthoven Johan Vande Lanotte Maité Morren Vlaams Belang Filip Dewinter Barbara Pas Philip Claeys Bert Schoofs Peter Logghe Hilde Roossens Minor parties LDD Jean-Marie Dedecker PVDA+ Peter Mertens Tom De Meester Sander Vandecapelle Kim De Witte Filip Desmet Benjamin Pestieau BUB Vincent Massaut Bic Verbiest Marie-Luce Lovinfosse Tonnie Brichard Mileen Verpoorten Hans Van de Cauter Pirate Party Christophe Cop Jonas De Koning Jo Vols

French-speaking constituencies Party Major parties cdH Catherine Fonck Melchior Wathelet Benoît Lutgen Benoît Dispa Cédric du Monceau Francis Delpérée Ecolo Jean-Marc Nollet Muriel Gerkens Cécile Thibaut Georges Gilkinet Marcel Cheron Zakia Khattabi FDF Christophe Verbist Hugues Lannoy Serge Saintes Monique Felix Amaury Alexandre Olivier Maingain MR Olivier Chastel Daniel Bacquelaine Dominique Tilmans Sabine Laruelle Charles Michel Didier Reynders PS Elio Di Rupo Willy Demeyer Philippe Courard Jean-Marc Delizée André Flahaut Laurette Onkelinx Minor parties PTB Marco Van Hees Raoul Hedebouw Jonathan Taffarel Thierry Warmoes Liza Lebrun Benjamin Pestieau PP Mischaël Modrikamen Aldo Carcaci Michel Renquin Nathalie Strubbe Michaël Debast Tatiana Hachimi BUB Romuald Joly Nicolas Jacquemin Jo Conter Adrien Mertens Dimitri Parée Hans van de Cauter Pirate Party Paul Bossu Paul Thunissen

Opinion polling The results of the opinion polls are usually split into separate numbers for the three Belgian regions. Below, they are transposed to national figures.