30,937 foreigners signed up to vote

The registration results for foreigners signing up to vote in Luxembourg's up-coming commune elections have just been officially released and make for an interesting read.

The CEFIS or “centre d'etudes et de formation interculturelles et sociales” (centre for intercultural and social studies and training) and the “I can vote” campaign, have just published results confirming initial reports that 16.9% of those signed up to vote across the country are foreigners. In total that makes 30,937 foreigners signed up to vote foreigners registered.

That's a small climb from the 2005 elections at 15%, but a jump from 1999 where just 12% of foreign residents were registered to vote.

The main difference for commune elections taking place on October 9 where foreigners are concerned, is that non-EU as well as EU citizens are allowed to vote. In that respect 18% of EU nationals signed up to vote and 12% of non EU nationals.

The surprise comes when you look at the breakdown by country as to just how many people of each nationality have signed up to vote.

For EU countries it seems that the top voters, or at least those who have signed up to vote, are the Dutch at 26%, followed by Italians 23%, Austrians 21%, Belgians 20%, Germans also 20% and Portuguese 19%.

The Irish beat the Brits by 1% as UK citizens stand at 14% while the Irish reach 15%, however they are a both below the total EU average of 18%.

It is interesting to note that during the campaign before the deadline of registering to vote one of the main gripes of foreigners was the lack of information from political parties in a language they can understand.

When you take this into consideration it is clearly reflected in the sign-up figures. Those countries that are above the total EU average figure are those that either use German or French in the country or have a high understanding (political literature is usually published in French and German).

The countries with below average participation, (with the exception of France at 15%) are countries where German or French is not generally understood.

For non-EU citizens, the top three nationalities to sign-up were Montenegrins at 25%, Bosnians 18% and Yugoslavs 17%.

And then we come to the communes themselves. Reisdorf at 43%, Tandel at 32% were the top two communes where registration levels were the highest for foreigners. Meanwhile, Larochette at 32% and again Reisdorf at 21% are the top two communes that carry the most political weight for foreigners.

Don't forget that the Expat Voting Issue Event Part 2, takes place on Wednesday at the Chambre de Commerce. See the link below for full details.