Parliamentary Elections, 29 October 2025

After the collapse of the previous right-wing government, the Netherlands held snap elections on 29 October 2025 (FGS Global 2025). The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy with the government having executive power and the bicameral parliament holding legislative authority. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for four-year terms through a proportional representation system in a single nationwide constituency, with open candidate lists (OSCE/ODIHR 2025). 

Election administration is split between national and local levels: while the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations oversees the system, the independent Electoral Council (Kiesraad) serves as the central election management body and municipal authorities and temporary local election commissions run the actual voting process (OSCE/ODIHR 2025). The Kiesraad consists of seven members appointed by Royal Decree for four-year terms; its main tasks involve: the registration of names and logos of political parties, receiving lists of candidates, assessing candidate lists and the individuals appearing on them, numbering the lists of candidates, and determining the election results (Kiesraad n.d.a, Kiesraad n.d.c). For House of Representatives elections, the Netherlands is divided into 20 electoral districts, each with one main polling station (Kiesraad n.d.b).

A week before the polls, the Dutch data protection authority (AP) warned voters against making their choices based on consulting AI chatbots as these are unreliable and ‘clearly’, if ‘not deliberately’, biased when offering voting advice. Four chatbots tested by the AP often recommended the same two parties, regardless of the user’s question or prompt, and whether their expressed policy preferences were a match. This form of misinformation was described by the AP as impacting the integrity of free and fair elections (AFP 2025). 

Following polling, the leader of the party in second place did not immediately accept the results but insinuated partisan bias in the Dutch news agency (by calling it ‘ANP66’ – alluding to the winning party’s name, D66) and shared baseless claims from social media of ‘vote-rigging’ (Kirby 2025). 

Women of social minorities remain underrepresented at all levels and those of certain ethnic backgrounds face disproportionate online violence and threats, constituting a deterrent to participation in political life. It has also been pointed out that the lack of gender-sensitive promotion strategies and media requirements further constrains women’s visibility (OSCE/ODIHR 2025). Nevertheless, women gained 43.3 per cent of seats—up from 39.3 per cent of seats in the outgoing House of Representatives and surpassing a previous high of 42.7 per cent in 2010 (International IDEA n.d.a) The Stem op een Vrouw (Vote for a Woman) foundation claimed this was a vindication of tactical voting, organized since 2017 (Dutch News 2025). 

There were 13,589,128 registered voters in the parliamentary election and voter turnout was 78.3 per cent, similar to the 77.74 per cent turnout in 2023 (International IDEA n.d.). The conservative liberal/centrist D66 party received the most votes with 16.9 per cent, narrowly ahead of the far-right PVV party on 16.8 per cent (PolitPro n.d.).

Innovations

A new law was introduced in March 2025 that criminalizes digital and diaspora espionage. The government has broadened investment screening in order to safeguard the AI and biotechnology sectors. Law enforcement agencies have also been tracking and prosecuting threats against political figures to help ensure election security (MitKat 2025). 

The electoral legal framework was recently updated, including changes to election result-processing software, some election deadlines, and the division of responsibilities among state bodies and election commissions. Another innovation tested in the 2025 elections was a new, more compact ballot format to improve user-friendliness, with a small number of respondents to the ODIHR’s Needs Assessment Mission expressing concerns that  it may increase the risk of marking errors and invalid votes (OSCE/ODIHR 2025).