More than 14.2 million people are eligible to vote in next week's city council elections
More than 14.2 million people in the Netherlands are eligible to vote in the municipal elections scheduled for next Wednesday, according to preliminary figures released by CBS (Statistics Netherlands).
To participate in the elections, residents must be registered in a Dutch municipality, be at least 18 years old, and either hold citizenship of an EU country or have lived in the Netherlands for at least five years. Based on these requirements, roughly 80 percent of the country’s population qualifies to vote in the March 18 elections.
A significant number of new voters will take part this year. Around 820,000 young people are expected to vote in municipal elections for the first time because they were either under 18 or not living in the Netherlands during the previous local elections four years ago.
Among these new voters, approximately 70,000 people with Dutch nationality were also unable to vote in the last national parliamentary elections. Their participation highlights a growing generation of young voters entering the country’s democratic process.
The share of eligible voters varies across municipalities. On Schiermonnikoog, a small island municipality in the north of the Netherlands, nearly 93 percent of residents meet the voting requirements. Meanwhile, in Urk, only about 68 percent qualify, mainly because the community has a relatively large population of young residents who are not yet eligible to vote.