As the local elections draw closer, Minister for Home Affairs Taina Bofferding has unveiled a report shedding light on the composition of the candidates, providing insights into their ages, nationalities, and gender distribution. "We have not achieved the level of diversity we had aimed for," she concluded.

While acknowledging that the desired level of diversity has not been fully achieved, Bofferding noted a significant increase in female participation compared to the previous elections in 2017. This year, 39% of the candidates are female, an improvement from the 35.6% in 2017.

While there are no fixed quotas for women in municipal elections, six out of ten political parties have committed to achieving a 40% female presence on their candidate lists. Remarkably, exceptions to this commitment are found in the Commune de la vallée de l'Ernz and the Waldbredimus section of the new municipality of Bous-Waldbredimus, where no women are listed as candidates.

The average age of the candidates stands at 48, with the youngest contender representing the Democratic Party (DP) at 18 years old on election day. On the other end of the spectrum, the oldest candidate affiliated with the Conservatives (Déi Konservativ) will be 85 years old on June 11. Candidates between the ages of 40 and 59 dominate the lists of all parties, with the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (adr) and the Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL) having a higher proportion of older candidates.

Only 10% non-Luxembourgers

Addressing the representativeness of the candidate pool, the Minister expressed concern that only 10% are non-Luxembourgers. However, several candidates possess dual nationalities, and if one of those nationalities is Luxembourgish, they are classified as Luxembourgers. Notably, the Pirate Party stands out with the highest proportion of non-Luxembourgers, while the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) has the lowest.

In terms of the number of candidates, the Democratic Party (DP) leads with 573 candidates, closely followed by the CSV with 565. The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) ranks third with 479 candidates, followed by the Green Party (déi Gréng) with 412. The Pirate Party (159), the adr (141), the Left Party (déi Lénk, 111), Fokus (51), the KPL (43), and the Conservatives (33) complete the list.

Furthermore, the Minister for Home Affairs assured that the Ministry would closely monitor the municipal election procedures, with the aim of providing the new government with an opportunity for reform. Bofferding emphasised the need for modernisation, noting that many forms still need to be filled in by hand. Following election day, a comprehensive report will be compiled and submitted to the next government.

On election night, all eyes will be on the Government IT Centre (CTIE) in Cents, where the election results from all communes, except the capital and Esch-sur-Alzette, will converge. Teams will be on the ground in these two areas to expedite the process.

Preliminary results will be published on RTL and elections.public.lu, but it is crucial to note that these results are not yet official. The protocols of the main polling stations must be verified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the deadline of 15 days to lodge an appeal with the administrative court must expire for the results to become definitive and official.

Finally, the new municipal executive boards (Schäfferéit) must be sworn in by the Minister for Home Affairs before 1 September, 2023.