Ninove (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – 7 people were arrested in the Ninove election fraud case involving illegal proxy votes linked to Forza Ninove. Mayor Guy D’haeseleer wasn’t arrested; proxy abuse is now criminalised.
As VRT News reported, in the Ninove election fraud case, 7 people were arrested on 20, 2025. The East Flanders public prosecutor confirmed this. Police will question them because they are suspected of forgery. The mayor, D’haeseleer, was not arrested.
According to officials, for the first time, asking for proxy votes illegally is against the law. People could go to jail for 8 days to a month, or pay fines, or both. Even with these accusations, judges can’t change the election results because of proxy issues. The results stay the same, even if illegal voting is proven.
Was proxy voting abused in Ninove’s 2024 elections?
In October 2024, officials started looking into problems with how people voted in the local elections in Ninove on October 13, 2024. They took all the proxy forms to check if there were issues with how they were obtained and used. The investigation is about claims that people illegally asked for proxy votes and used fake medical papers to get them, which is now against the law.
These problems aren’t just in Ninove; they’ve also been seen in other areas. The focus is on votes linked to the Forza Ninove party. Some people close to Ninove’s mayor, Guy D’haeseleer, have been arrested. Some arrests were delayed because the mayor had a liver transplant. The former mayor, Tanja De Jonghe, from the Positief Ninove party, was surprised but said her party didn’t officially complain about the election results in November 2024.
The city has been watching Forza Ninove, the party led by Guy D’haeseleer. Ilse Malfroot is filling in for D’haeseleer right now because he’s dealing with medical issues. D’haeseleer has always said that proxy voting is very important for getting extra votes in elections. A brochure given out in Ninove told people who couldn’t vote in person to give their vote to Forza Ninove through a proxy.
D’haeseleer claims the party’s role was limited to informing people about the option to contact Forza Ninove if they wished to assign a proxy vote. According to D’haeseleer, the initiative to grant a proxy vote originated solely from the voters, not from the party itself.
When asked if any methods other than the leaflet were used to solicit proxy votes, D’haeseleer denied it, stating that no other recruitment methods were employed. In essence, Forza Ninove’s position was that they provided information about proxy voting as an available option but did not engage in direct solicitation or pressure to obtain those votes.
