Municipal elections 2026: every vote counts!

The Dutch municipal council elections in 2026 are regular municipal council elections that – in the greater part of the Netherlands – will be held on March 18, 2026. Exceptions apply in connection with reorganization and due to the special status of constituent parts of the Kingdom. Have you decided yet whether you will vote for a national party or a local party? Four years ago, 51% of the population voted. Do you believe in local politics?

Municipal elections

In the municipal council elections, you elect the members of the municipal council in your municipality. The municipal council decides on plans and regulations in the municipality. For example, regarding waste, traffic, and housing construction. The candidates with the most votes become council members on the municipal council.

The members of the municipal council (councilors) make decisions that are important for the municipality. For example, regarding education, new construction, or the level of taxes. Other duties of the councilors are:

check whether the Municipal Executive is properly implementing the policy;
have contact with residents to know what is going on;
handling many practical matters in the municipality, such as traffic, environment, healthcare, culture, and sports;
establishing general rules (ordinances) that residents of the municipality must adhere to;
adopt the budget and audit the municipality's annual financial report.

The municipal council is the highest governing body of the municipality.

It is difficult to find council members willing to stand on a party's electoral list. In 2026, a municipal council member spends an average of 20 hours per week on council work, including meetings, reading documents, and contact with residents. This is a secondary role often combined with a job, although council members experience a high workload. The number of hours varies by municipality (large or small), the size of the party group, etc. The monthly allowance in 2026 varies, depending on the size of the municipality, between €1.305,00 and €3.200,00. Apart from the workload and remuneration, council members also have to deal with aggression from citizens. Research shows that 40% of council members have experienced this. Conclusion: who still wants to become a council member in these turbulent times? And that is not even mentioning the time required for potential caregiving duties within the family, informal care for relatives, sports, and hobbies.

No elections

No regular municipal council elections will be held in the municipalities of Hilversum and Wijdemeren on March 18, 2026 , because they are involved in a reorganization effective January 1, 2027. If the legislative proposal for the merger is processed in time, the reorganization elections will be held on November 18, 2026.

Hilversum is a municipality in the province of North Holland and the largest town in the Gooi region. Hilversum is home to many national broadcasting companies and is also referred to as the 'media city'. 'Hilversum' is also used to refer to broadcasting activities.

The municipality of Hilversum has 94.601 inhabitants (January 1, 2026, source: CBS) on an area of 46,19 km² (of which 0,21 km² is water). After initially prosperous growth, the city's population declined significantly in the second half of the 20th century, from 100.000 in 1958 to less than 80.000 in 1999 (source: CBS). The municipality also referred to itself as a 'garden city', due to the green surroundings which form part of the Gooi Nature Reserve and, in a broader sense, of the Green Heart, and because of the garden suburbs designed for workers in the twentieth century. Due to the relatively large number of villas, it also referred to itself as a 'villa village'.

As of January 1, 2027, the municipality will merge with the municipality of Wijdemeren. The villages of Ankeveen, Breukeleveen, 's-Graveland, Kortenhoef, Loosdrecht, and Nederhorst den Berg fall under the municipality of Wijdemeren. Wijdemeren is a very water-rich municipality, with the Spiegelplas in the northwest and the Ankeveense Plassen to the east, and the Loosdrechtse Plassen in the (south)west. This concerns a so-called 'light merger', whereby the territory of the municipality of Wijdemeren is added to that of the municipality of Hilversum. The municipality of Hilversum will thereby continue to exist.

Election topics

As is known, the main themes of the elections in your municipality as well are: housing (housing for seniors and young people), safety (in public spaces), asylum seeker centres (whether or not and how many asylum seekers), and facilities (library, healthcare, swimming pool, culture).

In Leiden, there is extensive campaigning to encourage voting for more culture. See the result of the comparison at the bottom under 'More info'. Do you also take culture into account when choosing your vote?

I think there is enough culture when I see the 'Beautiful Netherlands' sheet for Leiden.....Rembrandt, 3 October celebrations, many museums...

Unique voting locations – where will you cast your vote?

Normally, you cast your vote with a red pencil in sports canteens, city hall, community centers, etc., but there are also special locations such as a cinema, a theater, a prison, a ship, a private home, or a museum.

One of the voting locations is Madurodam . Madurodam provides a picture of a Dutch city and Dutch society through over 435 scale models of buildings from all parts of the Netherlands. A hospital and a cemetery are missing. Some models move after inserting a coin into a coin machine or making a contactless payment. In most cases, this costs €0,20. There are also interactive elements that visitors can contribute to, such as closing the Oosterscheldekering or loading containers in the Port of Rotterdam. Some sections include informative audio commentary about the items on display.

Voting for a top 100 national monument: that is possible at the Cruquius Museum. The long history of Haarlemmermeer is hidden within the iconic De Cruquius steam pumping station. The battle with the water takes center stage here, and in the new pavilion, everything can be seen regarding the transformation of Haarlemmermeer since the land reclamation.

Red pencil

Make sure there is a working red pencil in the voting booth. To cast a vote as a Dutch voter, one must color in a circle next to the name of the desired candidate with a red pencil. Where does that actually come from?

In 2022, it was exactly one hundred years since the red pencil was introduced into the Dutch democracy. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Dutch voting process underwent a change. Before 1922, it was customary to vote with a black pencil. But after the introduction of universal suffrage, the number of voters increased enormously, and more and more individuals and parties stood for election. The vote counters made too many mistakes. When counting, they could not properly distinguish between a filled-in and an unfilled circle. To facilitate the counting, the Dutch government decided to use red pencils. An easily recognizable color, after all. The fact that red was also the color of socialism was not seen as a form of publicity.

Thanks to Peter Janssen of www.frankeerstempel.nl for the stamps in this blog.