Nearly 13 million Dutch qualified to vote in parliamentary elections

A total of 12.9 million Dutch can vote in the parliamentary elections on March 15th, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Wednesday. That's 300 thousand more than in the previous parliamentary elections in 2012.

Basically everyone with Dutch nationality aged 18 years and older is allowed to vote in the parliamentary elections. In 2016 only 56 persons were denied the ability to vote due to the severity of a crime they committed, according to the statistics office.

This year approximately 800 thousand young people will be voting in their first parliamentary elections, being below the age of 18 in 2012.

Dutch people abroad can also vote in the elections, but only if they registered to do so. According to preliminary figures from the municipality of The Hague, some 75 thousand Dutch registered to vote abroad. That is significantly more than the 48 thousand Dutch who voted abroad in the 2012 parliamentary elections. The municipality of The Hague is in charge of the registration for voting abroad.