35^th Session of the Congress – Strasbourg, 6-8 November 2018

Presentation by Stewart DICKSON (United Kingdom, ILDG)

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Information Report on the 21 March 2018 Municipal elections in the Netherlands

Strasbourg, France, 06 November 2018

Dear colleagues,

From 19 to 22 March, I had the pleasure to lead an Electoral Assessment Mission to the Netherlands. After 2014, this was already the second time that the Congress had been invited by the Dutch authorities to observe municipal elections.

On 21 March, the Dutch voters were called to the ballot boxes to elect the members of Local Councils in 335 municipalities. Given the high degree of decentralisation in the Netherlands and the wide range of competences entrusted to municipalities, local elections are particularly important in this country, notably for social matters.

A priori, it is the high level of trust in public institutions which strikes the electoral observer, - this was the case in 2014, and remains to be an interesting feature of the Dutch society also in 2018. The Election Day as such was well organised, with experienced and professional staff involved, and the voting and counting were generally carried out in a very transparent manner.

As observers we were also impressed by the efforts deployed by local authorities to open polling stations in convenient locations - to make it as easy as possible for the individual to cast the vote. We could observe the voting in many places including train stations, shopping malls, restaurants, homes for elderly people and even on boats! Such excellent access to polling stations – not only for voters who are supposed to work on the E-Day, traditionally a Wednesday in the Netherlands, but also for voters with reduced mobility –  ensures the inclusiveness of the process.

One more point deserves mentioning: In the Netherlands, the right to vote in local elections is based on voters’ permanent residence. Thus, only voters residing permanently in a municipality are entitled to decide on the composition of their Municipal Council. This allows long-term foreign residents to have a say in local decision-making, which is generally conducive to inclusiveness of the electoral process and citizen participation. This is also in line with the Congress’ Recommendation on voters residing de facto abroad.

As everywhere else, there is room for improvement in some areas. We think that the level playing field between candidates of national parties and candidates supported by local independent parties should be enhanced. Also, the current rules on access to the media and to State funding are not beneficial to local independent candidates to run on an equal basis. Moreover, the rules on campaign financing should be revised, in order to introduce spending ceilings and enable regular control over donations and expenditures during electoral campaigns.

Additionally, as advocated by a number of domestic stakeholders such as VNG (Association of Netherlands Municipalities) and NVVB (Dutch Association for Civil Services), the further modernisation of the electoral process should be promoted. This should include improvements of the counting, that is currently a quite cumbersome process – electronic counting could be a suitable solution.

To conclude, I would like to mention two points which have to do with the long-lasting democratic tradition of the Netherlands but could become part of a change process:

The first issue is proxy voting, that has been used in the Netherlands for almost a century now. We should be clear that this system does not appear to be misused in relation to vote-buying or other types of serious electoral fraud. However, the seemingly disproportionate high rated of proxy voting among certain groups of voters may challenge the secrecy of the vote and the ability of voters to make independent choices. As advocated by the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, an alternative to proxy voting could be early voting.

Secondly, let me say a word about the status of Mayors in the Netherlands. You may be aware that - and this has been much debated already in the past -  technically speaking, Mayors in the Netherlands are not elected, neither directly nor indirectly, but chosen on the basis of a selection mechanism in which the Municipal Council has an important say.

The current Government has opened the debate on the procedure of nomination of the Mayors and King’s Commissioners and some civil society movements also actively advocate in favour of a change. Therefore, it seems the appropriate moment to further reflect on the introduction of elections for Mayors, at least in major cities, to begin with.

The Congress, by its Information Report, is ready to give new impulses and inspiration for thought to all stakeholders in the Netherlands open to progress and development in electoral matters.  Against this background, the Congress supports those voices in the country that - in the sense of a modern, citizen-oriented perspective – recommend the introduction of democratic elections as the suitable criterion for the selection of Mayors in the Netherlands.

Thank you for your attention.