Electoral Council of the Netherlands ‘How to make more voters aware of potential irregularities? To what extent can those mistakes be corrected?’ Ms. Petra Kingma Senior legal advisor / Co-ordinator international affairs

What are we going to talk about? ‘Silete, Iudic, in munere alieno’: alternative ways of redressing electoral problems in the Netherlands. First part: some characteristics of the Dutch constitutional and electoral system. Second part: we believe transparency is key.

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands I Boring country; Constitutional monarchy; Three levels of governance; Representing assemblies rule!

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands II Constitution: Art 120 Constitution: “the constitutionality of Acts of Parliament and treaties shall not be reviewed by the courts”; Which means: there is no constitutional court; Political parties are not mentioned in the constitution or the electoral code; Longstanding jurisprudence of the highest court of the Netherlands: no interference in the political domain.

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands III Electoral system: Electoral system: proportional vote; Only collective represented assemblies are directly chosen; Approximately 12 million voters; Turnout around 80% for the House of Representatives; Fragmented assemblies: minorities are easily represented!

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands IV Electoral code: Only procedural norms: no margin of appreciation; There is one central electoral committee for elections to each representative assembly; The municipal executives are responsible for organizing the elections for each representative assembly: safety by numbers. The minister of Interior and Kingdom relations is responsible for the Electoral code.

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands V Irregularities and complaints in polling stations: Offense or mistake? Manipulation or stupidity? First moment for complaints: verbal objections of voters at the polling station. Second moment for complaints: verbal objections of voters present at the public meeting of the central electoral committee. All complaints are written down in the official report of the polling stations/central electoral committee.

Specific characteristics of the Netherlands VI Art P 21 Dutch Electoral code: when, who, what, why? “Before the result of the election is announced, the central electoral committee may decide, either ex propio motu or in response to a reasoned request from one or more voters, to conduct a recount of the ballot papers from all or from one or more polling stations if there are serious grounds for suspicion that errors in the count that might affect the allocation of seats have been made by one or more polling stations.” No re-run of elections! Hereto only the representative assembly can decide without any restrictions. No role for EDR!

Second part: alternative ways for EDR I TRANSPARENCY Presence of voters in the polling station: “Immediately after the votes have been counted, the chairperson shall announce the results. Verbal objections may be made by the voters present.”; Presence of voters at the public meeting of the central electoral committee; Immediate publication of the official reports and the tabulation-documents on the website of the municipalities; Database of election results: www.verkiezingsuitslagen.nl .

Second part: alternative ways for EDR II Are voters heard in their complaints? Ooh yes! Recent practical examples in the Netherlands: www.wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl (led to prohibition of the use of voting computers by the Minister of Interior and Kingdom relations (I&Kr) (2009)); GeenPeil (led to extra instructions from the Minister of I&Kr for polling stations members to welcome voters being present at the counting of the votes in the polling station (2019)); Open State Foundation. (led to an extra check by the Minister of I&Kr if the municipalities had actually published the official reports on the municipality websites (2019)). All elections are evaluated (standard procedure), which leads to expert meetings that are being held with different stakeholders for severe consultation. Where needed the Electoral code will be adjusted (endeavoured before next elections).

Please feel free to contact us! KIESRAAD Electoral Council of the Netherlands Visiting address: Zurichtoren, Muzenstraat 85 2511 WB The Hague Mailing address: P.O. Box 20011, 2500 EA The Hague Telephone: + 31 (0)70 426 71 01 Email:  kiesraad@kiesraad.nl Website: www.kiesraad.nl