- Kartel
A Kartel is the Dutch term for an electoral alliance between two or more parties in Belgium.
In a system of proportional representation in which the country is divided in multiple
electoral district s, such asBelgium the treshold to obtain one seat can be very high (5% of votes since2003 ), which also favours larger parties. Therefore some parties pool their voters in order to gain more (or any seats).The
SP.A-SPIRIT cartel between the socialistSP.A and the left-liberalSPIRIT is an example of such a cartel. On several occasions some or all Flemish parties bundled forces on 'Vlaams Kartel' lists for municipal elections in Brussels (in Dutch Vlaams Kartel), sometimes getting together one or two seats in the municipal council, sometimes getting none. As these parties are minority parties in every Brussels municipality, i.e. the parties of an ethnic or linguistic minority (on the average 15% of the population), this is a case of an electoral coalition of ethnic parties. There were such Kartel lists, whose composition differed from one municipality to another, inSint-Lambrechts-Woluwe in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G5_374.html 1976] and [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G4_374.html 1982] , inOudergem in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G5_358.html 1976] , [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G4_358.html 1982] and [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G3_358.html 1988] , inAnderlecht in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G3_357.html 1988] , inEtterbeek in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G5_361.html 1976] , [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G4_361.html 1982] and [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G3_361.html 1988] , inSint-Gillis in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G5_369.html 1976] , [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G4_369.html 1982] , inSint-Joost-ten-Node in [http://www.vub.ac.be/belgianelections/G4_370.html 1982] .Current Belgian Kartels
*
CD&V /N-VA
*SP.A /SPIRIT
*Open VLD , composed ofVLD ,Vivant andLiberal Appeal
*MR, composed of PRL, MCC, FDF and PFF
*Vlaams Belang /VLOTT (only in municipal elections)
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