Corinne Cahen presents the final registration rates for the municipal elections on 11 June 2023

On Wednesday 19 April 2023, Corinne Cahen, Minister for Family Affairs and Integration, together with Serge Hoffmann, Vice-President of Syvicol, and Sylvain Besch, director of CEFIS, took stock of the registrations of non-Luxembourgish residents in the electoral register for the municipal elections of 11 June 2023.

Corinne Cahen was impressed by the huge increase in registrations over the last two months. "The direct contact with people, going out to meet them and informing them in person has clearly paid off with 9,139 registrations in March and 8,748 registrations in the last two weeks before the deadline."

Sylvain Besch, director of CEFIS, said that the last two months before the registration deadline were the most favourable months in the history of voting in Luxembourg. "In addition, almost 10,000 non-Luxembourgers living in the country for less than 5 years benefited from the amendments to the electoral law adopted in July 2022. Between 11 June 2022 and 17 April 2023, the number of registered young people aged 18-24 also increased from 60 to over 600, a significant increase in absolute numbers."

After a review of the numerous projects launched during the "I can vote" campaign, Corinne Cahen thanked the partners, municipalities, multiplicators and associations that had organised a large number of awareness-raising initiatives and thus actively contributed to the success of the campaign launched in May 2022.

For his part, Serge Hoffmann, Vice-President of Syvicol, stressed the importance of the awareness-raising campaigns and actions carried out by the municipalities to encourage the enrolment of non-Luxembourgish residents on the electoral rolls. "These initiatives", he confirmed, "have obviously had a positive effect on the number of registrations in the different municipalities and without them this number would not have been so high".

50.084 persons registered on the electoral rolls

In order to closely follow the evolution of registrations on the electoral rolls, the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region has worked closely with the Government IT Centre (CTIE) to obtain regular statistics on registrations broken down by certain individual characteristics and by municipality of residence.

50.084 people registered by 5pm on 17 April 2023, with an average final registration rate of 19.8 %.

There was a significant increase in registrations in the run-up to the elections, with 9.139 registrations in March and 8.748 registrations between 1^st and 17 April 2023.

On 17 April (the deadline for registration), 1.875 people still registered on the electoral rolls, which was a record for the day.

The main nationalities (Portuguese, French, Belgian, German, etc.) achieved an above-average registration rate (national registration rate is 19.8 %). 162 nationalities are now recorded in the electoral registers, which is also a new record compared to previous campaigns (in 2017, 134 nationalities were represented in the final statistics).

The reform of the electoral law of July 2022 also allowed 9.463 people who had been resident in Luxembourg for less than five years to register on the electoral rolls.

For people who have lived in Luxembourg for more than five years, there are 40.621 registrations out of 17.247, a rate of 23.6% (a higher rate than 2017: 22.8%).

50.084 new registrations were confirmed, and in absolute numbers the registrations of 2017 were significantly exceeded in the end (34.638 people had registered in 2017).

Large mobilisation of actors in the framework of "I can vote"

As far as awareness-raising activities are concerned, the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region, the associations, multiplicators and the municipalities have made a joint effort to mobilise as many non-Luxembourgish residents as possible to register on the electoral rolls.

At least 48 municipalities and associations borrowed stand material for events in 2022 and 2023. The ministry itself took part in 22 local events. Three projects were selected under the PAN 2022 project call to raise awareness of local elections among non-Luxembourgers and especially first-time voters. 15 businesses and institutions organised "I can vote" events in the presence of the Minister for Family Affairs and Integration, Corinne Cahen. Others distributed the information material to their employees, and the majority of municipalities participated in the National Registration Day on 18 March 2023.

An ongoing digital campaign on the social networks of the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region as well as advertisements and publicity in classic and digital media rounded off the measures.

Launch of the "I can vote" campaign at the Festival des migrations in May 2022

In May 2022, the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region and its partners launched the multilingual awareness campaign "I can vote". The aim was to inform non-Luxembourgish residents in several languages about their right to vote in the municipal elections on 11 June 2023 and to make them aware of the need to register on the electoral rolls in order to participate.

Thanks to the amendment of the electoral law in 2022, non-Luxembourgish residents who have resided in Luxembourg for less than five years also have the right to vote in municipal elections.

The campaign had a budget of 200.000 euros, spread over two years: 80.000 euros for 2022 and 120.000 euros for 2023.

Press release by the Ministry of Family Affairs, Integration and the Greater Region