At least 60,000 Dutch nationals abroad have signed up to vote in the March 15 general election, according to the AD.

Wednesday was the final day Dutch expats could register, and the final total is expected to be even higher, the AD said. At the last election in 2012, nearly 50,000 expats registered to vote, and almost 36,000 sent back their ballot papers.

Some 500,000 Dutch nationals live abroad. The total number of expat votes will be published next week.

The current procedure to sign up is both complicated and time consuming. But after the March 15 vote, expats will only have to register once to be eligible to vote in every election.

At the last general election, the right-wing Liberal VVD took 33% of the expat vote, followed by D66 on almost 21%. Labour was third with 14.5%.

This year, D66 parliamentary hopeful Eelco Keij is hoping to win enough expat support to win a seat as an MP. Keij, a former expat who is 39th on the party’s list, needs 16,000 votes to automatically qualify.