Millions of Dutch residents head to polls for municipal elections
More than 14.2 million people across the Netherlands are eligible to vote in municipal elections today, according to preliminary figures from CBS. Residents must be registered in a Dutch municipality, at least 18 years old, hold EU citizenship, or have lived in the Netherlands for at least five years. About 80 percent of the population meets these criteria.
Voting is taking place at thousands of polling locations across 342 municipalities, staffed by hundreds of volunteers. Approximately 820,000 young people are voting for the first time, having either been under 18 during the last municipal elections, or residing abroad.
Of these, roughly 70,000 Dutch citizens were also ineligible to cast a ballot in the most recent national parliamentary elections. Eligibility levels vary a bit by municipality: Schiermonnikoog sees nearly 93 percent of residents eligible, while Urk has around 68 percent, largely because of a higher share of young residents.
Undecided voters can use several official tools to guide their choices. The online Stemwijzer voting guide is available for 258 municipalities, with 73 offering a commercial, locally tailored version and 185 using a free, general version covering topics like camera surveillance and bulk waste collection.
Other aids include MijnStem, active in 73 municipalities, and Kieskompas, which offers an interactive tool for 49 municipalities. The free version includes topics such as camera surveillance and bulk waste collection, while local journalists contributed 25 to 30 statements per municipality on current political matters, NOS reported.
Concerns have also been raised about using AI for voting advice. The Dutch Data Protection Authority found that popular chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Mistral, and Grok, largely ignore local parties, which typically win about 30 percent of municipal votes.
Fewer than 1 percent of chatbot recommendations mentioned them. Minister of the Interior Pieter Heerma said AI advice is “partly arbitrary” and should not be relied upon.
