By Canadian Press

Voting starts in coronavirus-affected Dutch election

Mar 15, 2021 | 3:48 AM

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Polling stations opened across the Netherlands early Monday in a general election that has been spread over three days to allow people to vote safely during the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has been a dominant theme of the campaign, with opposition parties criticizing the government’s handling of the health care emergency and candidates explaining how they will rebuild the economy when the virus recedes.

Voting Monday started exactly a year after the first Dutch coronavirus lockdown began and the country is in another tough lockdown amid stubbornly high infection numbers. More than 16,000 people are confirmed to have died of COVID-19 in the Netherlands.

The conservative People’s Party of Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte is forecast to win most seats in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament.

That would put 54-year-old Rutte first in line to begin talks to form a new governing coalition. If he succeeds, he could become the longest-serving Dutch leader.

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The first two days of voting are intended for vulnerable groups to be able to cast their ballot. People aged over 70 also are entitled to vote by mail.

Campaigning will continue through Tuesday, halting only on the official election date, Wednesday.

In Amsterdam, voters could cast their ballot at locations including a drive-through polling station at a conference centre that even had a lane for people on the city’s favourite mode of transport — bicycles.

A record 37 parties are fielding candidates in the election. After votes are counted Wednesday night and into Thursday, the process of forming the next ruling coalition will start.

Christian Democrat leader Wopke Hoekstra said Sunday he favours a repeat of the last four-party coalition, which was led by Rutte’s VVD and also included the centrist D66 party and religious party Christen Unie.

The country’s second largest party is the Party for Freedom, led by anti-immigrant lawmaker Geert Wilders. Polls suggest the party will retain that position, but Wilders is unlikely to be invited to join any coalition because of his outspoken anti-Islam policies.

The polls also forecast that at least two new parties could enter Parliament with a small number of seats — the right-wing populist JA21 and the pro-European party Volt.

Rutte’s government has been in caretaker mode since January when it resigned over a scandal involving tax officials seeking to root out fraud wrongly targeting families, plunging thousands into debt.

Despite the scandal, the prime minister’s popularity, boosted last year by his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, has remained high — although it has slipped slightly as the election approached.

Mike Corder, The Associated Press