Election Special event | Listen back🎙

Amsterdam will elect a new city council, and district committees, on Wednesday 16 March 2022. (For these elections, some polling stations will have extra voting days before that on Monday, 14 and Tuesday, 15 March to allow for more social distancing.)

What are these elections for?

• Elections for the city council and the district committees are held every 4 years.
• For the city council, political parties submit their candidates to sit as councillors in the city council.
• In addition, each district has its own district committee. Candidates from both political and non-political parties and groups are eligible to stand for election.

Who can vote? 

• Non-Dutch citizens are also able to vote if they meet certain conditions. If you are not sure, you can find out it you are eligible at amsterdam.nl/who-can-vote.
• Everyone who has an EU passport has the right to vote for the Amsterdam municipal elections. To vote, you only have to be registered as a resident in the city. For Non EU passport holders, you can also vote if you have been living in The Netherlands legally for over five consecutive years, and only two years for voting in the district elections.
• You have to be 18 or over to vote in the city council elections, but 16- and 17-year-olds may vote for the district committees of Amsterdam.
• If you are eligible, you will automatically receive a stempas, a voting pass, in the post about two weeks before the elections. look out for an envelope with the word, ‘Stem’ in big red letters on the front. If you are eligible to vote in the district committee elections, too, you’ll also get a separate voting pass for that.
• Find your local polling booth here, https://stembureaus.amsterdam.nl/map
• At the polling booth, you’ll need your voting pass (stamps) and proof of identity to be able to vote, eg your passport, ID card, driving license or residence permit.

Still not sure if you can vote or not? Try this tool on the Groenlinks Amsterdam website, https://amsterdam.groenlinks.nl/en/can-i-vote

Choosing who to vote for?

• According to the city council’s website, amsterdam.nl, in the 2022 elections, 26 parties have candidates running for election to the city council, with a total of 558 candidates to choose from, as well as 455 candidates standing for the district committees.
• The official candidate lists are available at amsterdam.nl/verkiezingen (in Dutch).
• To help you make your choice, two Dutch-language voting guides are available on amsterdam.nl/verkiezingen: one for the city council elections and one for the district committee elections.
• The Stemwijzer tool is also available for Amsterdam voters to help you identify which political parties align with the issues important to you. It’s in Dutch but you can also use it via a Google Chrome browser to translate. https://amsterdam.stemwijzer.nl

For more on the Amsterdam elections see

• amsterdam.nl/en/elections [in English]
• amsterdam.nl/verkiezingen [in Dutch]
• Het Parool’s local elections coverage [in Dutch] is here, https://www.parool.nl/dossier/gemeenteraadsverkiezingen-2022-storystream