Dutch nationals living abroad have until September 17 to register to vote in the October general election, and to declare if they wish to vote in person, by letter or by proxy. Only people who have not previously registered are required to do so.

Voting is still done by local post – something which Dutch expat groups abroad have long campaigned against.

They want the government to introduce electronic voting to make sure that ballot papers don’t get lost or delayed in the mail, as has happened on a wide scale in the past. Dutch expats foundation SNBN recommends its members vote by proxy to make sure their vote actually counts.

Some 108,000 Dutch nationals living abroad were registered to vote in the 2023 general election and 69,000 votes from abroad were included in the results, but almost 1,000 arrived too late to be counted.

The GroenLinks/PvdA alliance emerged as the biggest party under Dutch expats, with 28.6% of the vote. The VVD was in second place with 17.4% and NSC in third with 12.1%.

D66, traditionally a popular party with expats, saw its share of the vote fall from 17.8% in 2021 to 10.5%. The PVV was unchanged on just over 6%.