Europese verkiezingen (European Elections) always have a lower turnout than national elections. That is not different in the Netherlands. Here, people have the opportunity to vote today for the new European Parliament. They vote for national and local parties, that will then represent them in the European Parliament in the European parties. This year, the new Commission President will also be elected by the Parliament, and therefore this is also an important part of the elections.

So how do the Dutch choose?

A very often used way to shape a vote is the stemwijzer, like this one. Try it out, see if you can answer the questions, and what party you would vote for!

The Stemwijzer, which literally means ‘voting pointer’, is a selection of questions. They show what other parties voted for, and how many questions you answered in common.

To go voting, the Dutch need their stempas (polling card), and very handy is the kandidatenlijst, or short de lijst. It is the candidate’s list, with all names of the people on there you can vote for. In the Netherlands, you vote for the person, not the party. The person on the list gains a vote for his party and a vote for himself. Depending on his place on the rank, he will get a seat or not.

A stempas

A new phenomenon that came into the Netherlands together with the selfie, is the stemfie (a combination of stemmen (voting) and selfie), where you take a picture of yourself with your stembiljet (ballot paper). A Dutch court decided that it is ok to take such a picture, as long as it is not visible who you voted for. It could be that people are then put under duress or paid for voting in a certain way, with a picture as evidence of their vote.

So let’s see what the turnout will be and who the Dutch will vote into the Parliament! Here is a little video I made – what do the Dutch actually think about this election? I asked a few people.