Lottery

Lottery of the members of the Citizen Assembly: Description of the methodology

Each time a new Citizens' Assembly is convened, another random selection is performed in order to determine the members of the Citizen Assembly.

All citizens as of the age of 16 and legally resident in the German-speaking Community can be chosen to be part of a Citizen Assembly.

The Citizen Council determines in advance how many persons should participate in the Citizen Assembly (between 25 and 50 citizens).

Step 1: Principle of random selection

For the execution of the tasks related to the drawing by lot of citizens, the Permanent Secretary is authorized – by the Decree of 25 February 2019establishing a permanent Citizen Dialogue in the German-speaking Community – to demand from the municipalities in the German-speaking Community the list of persons that are recorded in the Population Registry. The mentioned data can only be used for internal administration and cannot be handed over to third persons.

Step 2: Self-selection

The Permanent Secretary contacts by letter the selected persons and asks them to confirm or decline their participation in written form. This means, participation in a Citizen Assembly is always voluntary.

Step 3: Stratification criteria

Out of the pool of citizens having confirmed their participation, the Permanent Secretary finally draws by lot the definitive participants (and, potentially, replacement members). This group of citizens should represent a cross-section of the East-Belgian population. Therefore, the following criteria are taken into account: age, gender, geographical location and socio-economical background.

Composition of the Citizens' Council

The members of the first Citizen Council were selected by lot. Every six months, one third of the members is substituted. This means that eight citizens, previously members of a Citizen Assembly and with a clear understanding of the process from their own experience, succeed.

Any questions about lottery ?

Contact the Permanent Secretary :
Platz des Parlaments 1, B-4700 Eupen

+32 (0)87/31 84 22
buergerdialog@pdg.be