Political party comparison sites launch ahead of municipal elections

StemWijzer, the political party comparison site for the municipal elections, went online on Thursday. This voting aid by the ProDemos information center aims to help voters from 55 municipalities gain insight into which political party suits them best through a series of statements.

On Thursday, 41 municipal voting guides will be online. This includes large municipalities like Amsterdam and The Hague, but also smaller municipalities like Baarn, Katwijk, Soest, and Wageningen. The other 14 municipalities' voting aids will follow in the coming days. 

Four years ago, there were StemWijzer voting guides for 44 municipalities, which were consulted a total of over 1 million times. In the parliamentary elections last year, voters consulted the StemWijzer 7.8 million times. 

According to ProDemos, many people don't vote in municipal elections because they don't know about municipal topics, parties, and points of view. "The StemWijzer is a voting aid that provides insight into which topics are at stake in the elections and what the political parties think about it."

Kieskompas and MijnStem will also publish online voting aids this year. A spokesperson for Kieskompas said that the municipal electoral aids are expected on February 17. The 250 MijnStem voting aids will go live in phases and be completely online from February 25. 

334 of the 345 Dutch municipalities are having elections on March 16. People will also be able to vote on the two previous days. Eleven municipalities won't hold elections. Eight of these recently had council elections due to reclassifications. And in three, the election will be held later due to an upcoming merger.