Dutch General Election Sees Lackluster Early Voting Turnout - Poll

THE HAGUE (Sputnik) - Fourteen percent of Dutch voters cast their ballots three hours into the general election on Wednesday, down 1 percentage point from the pre-pandemic in-person voting in 2017, an Ipsos poll published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS showed.

The polling began at 7:30 am local time (06:30 GMT) and will close at 9 pm. A Sputnik correspondent in The Hague reported that there were no lines outside the 283 polling places set up across the city.

Some of the unusual voting locations were the Madurodam miniature park in The Hague, the Anne Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

There are 26 parties vying for seats in the lower house of parliament, including the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte who handed over the party leadership to Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius. Other frontrunners are the right-wing Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders and the Labor Party-Green Left bloc of former EU Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans.

A survey published by the I&O Research agency on the eve of the voting put Wilders and his Party for Freedom in the lead with prospective 28 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, followed by the People's Party and the Labor Party-Green Left bloc with 27 seats apiece, and the once-favorite centrist New Social Contract of Pieter Omtzigt trailing behind with 21 seats.