Democracy Volunteers deployed observers across the Netherlands for the parliamentary elections in October. Deploying 32 observers and experts, 25 of whom were based in the European Netherlands and the other 7 on the BES islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
Democracy Volunteers has now observed in The Netherlands on 8 separate occasions, deploying 99 observers, across 63 of the 345 municipalities and special municipalities, attending 619 polling stations, observing 19,833 voters casting their votes. We have spent 308 hours in Dutch polling stations. On average we have spent 47 minutes in each polling station during these 8 observations. They are:
- Dutch Parliamentary Elections 2025
- Dutch Parliamentary Elections 2023
- Dutch Provincial and Waterboard Elections 2023
- Dutch Municipal Elections 2022
- European Parliamentary Elections 2019
- Dutch Provincial and Waterboard Elections 2019
- Dutch Municipal Elections and Advisory Referendum 2018
- Dutch Parliamentary Elections 2017
As with many European developed democracies, we continue to identify issues that resist elections authorities’ attempts to improve elections. These focus around so-called ‘family voting’ in The Netherlands, but also, significantly, in relation to on-demand proxy voting, where one person can sign their ‘Stempas’ on election day and another person can cast their vote in person for them.
Commenting, Director of Democracy Volunteers, Dr John Ault said:
‘We believe that the form of proxy voting which is normalised in The Netherlands falls outside accepted international practice. In the present international climate of election integrity, this opens up potential criticism of the voting process in The Netherlands.’
‘We also believe that this may constitute a double standard, as membership of the OSCE/ODIHR would suggest that proxy voting should be more limited, in line with the standards that The Netherlands advocates elsewhere.’
‘It is impossible for electoral authorities in The Netherlands to know to what extent consent has been given to the proxy voter by which they receive the other person’s vote. The practice of on-demand proxy voting, practiced in The Netherlands, is open to intimidation, vote buying and legitimises, even formalises, family voting. This is when the head of a household, for example, is able to dictate another’s vote and cast it in their name.’
‘In other countries family voting is illegal, in The Netherlands it is formalised through the practice of on demand proxy voting and should end.’
