Evaluation of municipal elections and further quality improvements of the election process | News item

News item | 30-09-2022 | 16:40

Thanks to the great efforts of municipalities and the many volunteers, the municipal elections of 14, 15 and 16 March 2022 went well. Few or no incidents occurred on election days. This is what Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Hanke Bruins Slot writes in the evaluation she is presenting to the House of Representatives today.

Due to the corona pandemic, a limited number of measures still applied during the municipal elections. The 1.5-meter distance rule no longer applied, but facilities were made as much as possible in the polling stations so that voters who wanted to could keep their distance. Also, under the Temporary Elections Act Covid-19, it was possible to vote early in the polling station on Mondays and Tuesdays. The Electoral Council and the international observation missions of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (Council of Europe) and Democracy Volunteers also concluded that the elections went well.

Minister Bruins Slot: “Organizing an election is normally already a big job for municipalities, but in this election, municipalities also had to contend with a major loss of volunteers as a result of corona shortly before the election days. At the last minute, this demanded a lot of commitment and flexibility from the officials and volunteers involved. I greatly appreciate the efforts of all those people to ensure that the elections run smoothly. They ensure that everyone can vote and that is a great thing.”

At 50.99%, the turnout in the last municipal elections was historically low. The minister is therefore commissioning research to gain insight into the reasons why those entitled to vote did not vote in these elections. The investigation report is expected within a few weeks.

Quality improvement election process

Despite the smooth running of the elections, it remains necessary to maintain and innovate the electoral process. Elections are the basis of the democratic constitutional state. That is why the government is investing in improving the quality of the election process. Additional funds will be made available for this from 2023. This makes it possible to implement a large number of measures to enhance the robustness, accessibility and feasibility of the electoral process. Such as increasing the accessibility of elections, improving the verifiability of the electoral process with a new procedure for determining election results and improving the publication of official reports. The Electoral Council will also be given a greater role in improving the quality of the election process.

The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is preparing an amendment to the law so that more effective action can be taken against the recruitment of proxies. Recruiting proxies is a criminal offence. Earlier research by the Electoral Council shows that recruitment does not occur on a large scale. But also that it is difficult to really tackle this. A fair and reliable conduct of the election process benefits from effective action against the recruitment of proxy votes.
By tightening up the description of the offense and the associated penalty in the Elections Act, more successful action can be taken against the recruitment of proxies in the future.

These and other measures are included in the Election Agenda 2030. The Election Agenda contains proposals for renewal and improvement of the election process, which the BZK has mapped out in collaboration with the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG), the Dutch Association for Civil Affairs (NVVB) and the Electoral Council.

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