Signs of vote soliciting in Gorinchem long before municipal election day
The municipality of Gorinchem already received reports of votes being solicited well ahead of the municipal elections on March 18, Mayor Reinie Melissant said on Tuesday during an information evening on suspicions about voter fraud in the Zuid-Holland municipality.
The suspicions concern at least one candidate committing fraud involving proxies, RTL Nieuws reported. “People were approached at the door, by phone, and pressured to provide a proxy,” Melissant said.
After receiving these reports, the municipality provided all lead candidates with a handout containing information about proxies and clearly stating that soliciting votes is a punishable offense, the mayor said. When sending out the ballots, the municipality also informed residents that it is illegal to approach citizens for a proxy.
On election day, one polling station in Gorinchem reported that a candidate had visited the station five times, each time accompanied by one or two people with multiple proxies. Another polling station has since also reported irregularities, though the mayor did not say what these entail.
The police and Public Prosecution Service (OM) are investigating. It is not yet clear what the consequences of this investigation will be. The mayor did not say who the suspected candidate is.
On Thursday morning, the Central Electoral Office will convene under the leadership of the mayor. This is standard practice and is happening in every municipality where elections were held. The Central Electoral Office can then decide to declare the result wholly or partially invalid. “That decision cannot be postponed until after the results of the OM investigation,” the mayor said. The investigation and the Central Electoral Office’s decision are separate.
According to the schedule, the new city council will take office on April 1. “It sounds logical to wait for the investigation, but that is not possible. The timelines do not align, the mayor said. As soon as the results are final, it will be up to the sitting council members to decide how to proceed. The council could order a revote. “That is a rare and very powerful instrument. The turnout and the result will not be the same.
Experts told RTL Nieuws that voter fraud is very rare in the Netherlands. People are allowed to vote with a maximum of two proxies, making it difficult to get a large number of votes in this way.
