6.7% of foreign residents registered to vote in local elections

During the first City Breakfast of the year on Wednesday morning, municipal officials announced the figures of foreign residents who registered to vote.

The requirements for voting in local elections as a non-Luxembourgish national have recently changed. At the moment, about 5,500 non-Luxembourgers are registered to vote in the municipal elections on 11 June.

More than 75,000 residents of the capital can still register to vote before 17 April. Mayor Lydie Polfer acknowledged that there is still room for improvement in voter registrations.

She detailed the various efforts the city had planned to encourage residents to register, including social media posts, posters on buses, and ads in the CityMag. The capital is also taking part in the "I can vote" campaign, and staff at the Citizen Service Centre (Bierger-Center) "are informing everyone that they can register." Additionally, the municipality will be contacting the 75,000 people who have not registered thus far.

Municipal officials believe that it is particularly important to stress that people are eligible to register because many EU citizens are not accustomed to the system of compulsory voting.

Over 4,000 new inhabitants

The capital's population is still growing. On 31 December 2022, Luxembourg City had approximately 132,800 inhabitants, over 4,000 more than the previous year.

According to Polfer, last year saw more births than deaths. Combined with the number of people who moved to Luxembourg City, the total number of new residents in 2022 was 4,557.

Serge Wilmes, member of the municipal executive board (Schäfferot) for the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), added that over the past five years, around 17,000 people have moved to Luxembourg City, which is roughly the same as the population of Hesperange. More than 70% of the capital's residents are non-Luxembourgers.