Absolute majority for Red/Green alliance in Ghent

Results in from Ghent show that the alliance of socialists and greens headed by the outgoing mayor Daniel Termont could be on course for a stunning election victory. The red-green ticket seems set to land an overall majority of seats on Ghent council.

The outgoing Mayor of Ghent, Daniel Termont, has said that his Red/Green alliance was on course for an absolute majority of council seats on the new Ghent council. He added that the challenge now was to put into practice the programme that they had put to the people. His ambition was the creation of a social and ecological city where the living was good.

Mr Termont urged his supporters to celebrate tonight and to wait until tomorrow for the final results before making any pronouncements or taking any decisions on the future: "Tomorrow we will see what we can do, whether we need a third party or want to involve the liberals of Open VLD. Tonight we will party."

On Monday the leaderships of the Ghent socialists and greens will convene to consider the results and decide on the way ahead.

The first results give the socialist/green list 45% of the vote with an overall majority a distinct possibility.

The liberals of Open VLD that formed part of the outgoing majority on the city council are in third place with 16% - a loss of 5%.

In partial results Siegfried Bracke's Flemish nationalists get around 17% of the vote.
The Christian democrats polled 9%. The far right Vlaams Belang loses 13% and takes around 6% of the vote.

The far left PVDA lands a first council seat with 3% of the vote.

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