Political parties are often considered as being at the centre of the electoral process. However, with the weakening of social structures one can ask if it is still the case. Undeniably, more and more voters disassociate themselves from a political party in a context of dealignment and electoral volatility, reducing the role of party representation and enhancing the personalization of the representative process. Nevertheless, while candidates play a crucial role in the political linkage, it is still the party who selects them and decides who is eligible for a seat in Belgium. Therefore, it would be wrong to neglect the role of the political party in the personalisation process. In fact, the argument that the candidate is just a tool, used to optimize the winning chances of the party is just as plausible. One way to contribute to the ongoing debate and shed some light on the phenomenon of personalization is by considering the final offer of the political party, namely the electoral lists it presents in various constituencies. From this perspective the objective of this article is a twofold. The first is to investigate how parties balance the electoral lists with regard to the socio-demographic characteristics of candidates (i.e. age, residence, gender, profession) as well as their political characteristics (i.e. incumbency, campaign experience, previous preference votes). Following this, the determinants of the final list compositions will be analysed. Are there structural factors (e.g. district magnitude, party magnitude,…) influencing the list composition regardless of the differences in the candidate selection process and what type of candidates do they favour? This article answers the call for more research on PR electoral systems, by using longitudinal Belgian data ranging from 1995 until 2014 – offering the possibility to identify the impact of variation in the electoral system due to subsequent electoral reforms.