Dutch MPs have supported home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk’s decision to count the general election by hand, rather than with computer, due to fears of fraud.

The NOS broadcaster reported on Thursday that MPs agreed that there must be no doubt about the election result.

Plasterk said that, practically speaking, not much would change, although there were questions about how long the count would take and some municipal councils have raised concerns about staffing.

Until now, the results of individual voting bureaux were stored on USB sticks and collaged centrally, but this will now happen on paper. Last week Plasterk announced that they would switch to ‘good old paper’ after broadcaster RTL revealed that the old software was ‘leaky as a sieve’.