The Netherlands will elect 150 MPs for the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. Here is a round-up of the latest election news.

No clear winner in the polls

Opinion polls suggest the Dutch general election on Wednesday will be an extremely close-run thing, with five parties all within a few seats of each other.

The latest EenVandaag/Verian poll has the far-right PVV on 34 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, while Peil.nl, compiled by Maurice de Hond, puts the party on 29 seats and Ipsos/I&O on 26.

The three polling organisations give the GroenLinks-PvdA alliance 25, 24 and 23 seats respectively, and the Christian Democrats 23, 22 and 20.

The biggest difference in opinion is in the fortunes of the liberal democratic party D66, which is set to win 16, 17 or 22 seats. The pollsters also have different ideas about the right-wing VVD, which has ruled out taking part in a coalition with the left-wing alliance and is on target to take 15, 20 or 16 seats, depending on who you believe.

The polls all indicate that at least four parties will be needed to form a new coalition, and the other four of the top five have all said they won’t work with the PVV.

D66 is the biggest spender on advertising

D66 has so far spent the most on its general election campaign, shelling out 67% more than the VVD, according to figures compiled by research firm Nielsen and quoted by the Volkskrant.

Nielsen values D66’s campaigns at around €1.8 million to date, compared with €1.1 million for the VVD and €928,000 for GroenLinks-PvdA. The firm bases its estimates on official rate cards for broadcasters and websites, so actual spend is likely to lower, but the figures give a clear picture of the pecking order.

The parties have, in total, spent slightly more than at the two previous parliamentary elections, and advertising outlay is expected to rise again in the final days before Wednesday’s vote.

The current totals cover the period up to October 19 and historically more than 80% of budgets are deployed in the last week and a half of campaigning.