The Next Dutch Municipal Elections: What Expats Need to Know

Wednesday, March 18, 2026, will be the next round of local elections in the Netherlands, and, as an expat, this is the one time you get a seat at the table without needing a Dutch passport. The Dutch are famous for their love of consensus. If you are a citizen of an EU member state, you can vote in these elections as soon as you arrive, after registering your address at the local gemeente. If you don’t have an EU passport, you must have lived in the Netherlands for at least 5 years before you can vote. It’s fairly rare for an EU country to give voting rights to non-EU citizens at such a significant level.

Why Your Vote Matters In the Dutch Political Arena

The national elections focus on big-picture laws, but your local council election is still very important. The last national election is Netherlands took place in October 2025. The social liberal D66 and the right-wing populist PVV were the largest Dutch political parties, each winning 26 seats in the House.

In the Netherlands, decision-making is very decentralized; local councils play a role in deciding things like car-free streets, garbage-tax levies, or whether the city library will remain open on Sunday, and debate anything from the budget allocated to Dutch language courses.

The Voting Process: Red Pens and Paper

The voting process in the Dutch Political sphere is delightfully low-tech: on Election Day, each elector is supposed to go to the polling booths with a large-sized paper ballot and a red pen as their equipment. A fortnight before the big day, a stempas or a voting card may appear in your letterbox. On election day, you simply head to the polling station in your city, which could range from an elementary school headmaster’s house to a conspicuously quiet church.

The Dutch Political Landscape

At the local level, Dutch political parties range from national heavyweights to hyperlocal groups. Some familiar names are the liberal VVD, D66, and the green-left GroenLinks-PvdA, giving way to some seriously local parties with life in just one town. Local Dutch political parties often handle particular grievances: park grass of the utmost quality or proper cargo-bike parking spaces. At least eleven municipalities this year, including Leiden and Nijmegen, are experimenting with smaller A3 ballots, handier than the new two-fold form used for the giant folding map.

Fancy Running Yourself?

One somewhat surprising fact for many international voters is that, if you are allowed to vote, you are also eligible to run for office yourself in the Dutch political system. So, there is absolutely no reason to stop anyone from starting Dutch political parties, or to make expat voices audible to the local budget office. In March 2026, your vote will directly influence rental regulations and new housing developments in a city.