All votes in Heemstede will be recounted tomorrow, the city council decided this evening. Party leader Eric Geels of the political party Samen Sterk Heemstede made it clear after the elections that he had doubts about the reliability of the result and requested a recount last week.
The city council unanimously approved the recount without debate. Tomorrow morning at 8.00 the banknotes will be counted manually again in the council chamber. The result of the recount can then be determined at the council meeting tomorrow evening.
Councilors will be appointed on this basis and then the council can decide on Thursday about admitting new councilors. The installation of councilors, due to take place tomorrow, must be postponed until the votes have been properly counted.
13 votes too short
Geels participated for the first time in recent elections with his new party Samen Sterk Heemstede. During the results evening two weeks ago, it turned out that he was 13 votes short for a remaining seat. So he requested a recount.
In the radio program Haarlem Today from Haarlem105 Geels already announced last week that all parties would have agreed to agree to this recount. “I had already resigned myself to the results, but the polling stations then came together to bring out the final numbers.”
Because he thought 13 votes was a minimal difference, he set out to find out if everything was correct. “I spent three days counting everything and I came out with 13,533 votes cast. According to the official figures released, 13,451 people voted, a difference of 82. And I am very sure of this,” he said at the time.