Electoral Management Design Database

Netherlands, Election Act (valid from 20-06-2023); accessed on 27 December 2023.

Article A2: There is an Electoral Council, located in The Hague.

Article A3: 1. The Electoral Council acts as a central electoral committee in cases where the law requires this.

2. The Electoral Council also has the task of advising the government and both chambers of the States General on technical implementation matters relating to electoral law or elections.

3. The Electoral Council is also charged with collecting the results of elections held on the basis of this law and making them available in a generally accessible manner, as well as with the other tasks assigned to it in this law.

See also: OSCE, The Netherlands, Parliamentary Elections (17 March 2021), ODIHR Needs Assessment Mission Report (19 – 22 January 2021), accessed 1 April 2021

“The administration of elections is decentralized and shared between national and local governments and electoral commissions. The Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (MoIKR) oversees the conduct of elections at the national level, and the 352 municipal governments and 3 public entities are responsible within their jurisdictions. The electoral commissions are the Electoral Council (EC), 20 District Election Commissions (DECs), and some 10,000 Precinct Election Commissions (PECs).

The MoIKR is responsible for proposing legislation and issuing regulations related to the electoral process but it does not have direct authority over other election administration bodies. It is also responsible for developing the format of election-related materials, such as ballots and voting cards. The MoIKR conducts an evaluation after each election to identify areas for potential improvement. […] The EC is a permanent independent body of seven members appointed by the government through an open recruitment procedure for a maximum of two four-year terms. The EC registers the names of the political groups and the candidate lists for all districts, assigns the numbers to the lists registered, establishes the final election results and allocates mandates. The EC also acts as an advisory body to the government and the House on election-related matters.”