13NFL1-Compulsory Voting Page 53 of 163 www.victorybriefs.com COUNTRIES BELGIUM BELGIUM USES A SERIES OF FINES TO ENCOURAGE VOTING. Anthoula Malkopoulou postdoctoral researcher at the Finnish Academy Project, "Lost Voters Participation in EU elections and the case for compulsory voting, Centre for European Policy Studies Working Document No. July 2009. Within the EU, the most pronounced example of compulsory poll attendance is Belgium. According to election law, abstaining voters are subject to progressive fines, which become higher with the number of elections missed. They start from €25-50 for the first time and can rise to €50-125 for the second abstention. Those who abstain fora fourth time are also subject to temporary disenfranchisement and ineligibility for public office (Constitution, 1893; Electoral Law, 1894). Exempted are Belgian citizens abroad and EU and third-country nationals in local elections. The Belgian system seems to betaking an increasingly flexible line with nonvoters and has made additions to the list of acceptable reasons for nonvoting. Consequently, the increase of infrastructural facilitations for casting ballots and the lack of sufficient judicial staff resources to handle abstention cases has made prosecution less likely in effect.
