Elections in the Netherlands kicked off yesterday and will continue until tomorrow – as part of the desire to prevent polls at the polls due to the corona plague. According to estimates, Prime Minister Mark Rota is expected to be elected to a fourth term – despite the scandal surrounding child benefit payments and checks against corona restrictions.
The election was supposed to take place only tomorrow, but due to the renewed rise in morbidity and in order to reduce crowds, it was decided that the vote would be spread over three days, until tomorrow at nine o’clock in the evening. Some 13 million citizens can run in the election, and all citizens aged 70 and over have received ballot papers for their homes so they can mail them and avoid going to the polls.
Recent polls have shown that Ruta’s People’s Freedom and Democracy Party is expected to finish first with close to a quarter of the vote, gaining 36 to 40 of the 150 seats in parliament. This is compared to the 33 seats she received in the election four years ago.
Rota is set to be re-elected, although two months ago he announced the resignation of the government after it became clear that thousands of parents, mostly from ethnic communities, had been accused by the tax authorities of cheating around child benefits.
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The night curfew and the closure of restaurants and non-essential businesses are still provoking protests, and only on Tuesday did police disperse some 2,000 protesters in The Hague. Estimates are that voters are not currently interested in a dramatic change in government, especially in the face of the crisis.
The far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islam stances, is expected to remain the second largest party with about 20 seats. Rota made it clear that he did not intend to share the extremist party in the checkers coalition, and yesterday Wilders called it an “undemocratic move”. “The voter is the boss and not the rotten one,” Wilders added, arguing that the three major parties at the end of the election should form the next government.