Counting the votes for the Provincial Elections is taking so long that the ministry has sent an email to all municipalities. If the counters are too tired, the mayor may decide to temporarily stop counting and continue on Thursday.
The ministry writes that the municipalities are not “obliged to do the impossible”. The most important thing is that the count is done carefully, the ministry emphasizes in the email ANP has in hand.
At least one municipality (Diemen) has decided in response to the instruction to continue counting on Thursday. Several municipalities have already announced that they intend to suspend counting.
The municipalities must meet a number of requirements if they want to stop. If it is not possible to continue counting at certain polling stations, an official report must be drawn up stating at least how many valid voting passes have been received, how many valid proxies there are and how many valid voter passes there are. All so-called voting documents (including voting passes and ballot papers) must be sealed and secured to the municipality.
The municipalities must resume counting on Thursday. That does not necessarily have to be the same team as counted on Wednesday.
Actually, the intention is that the counters at least determine how many votes have been cast for each party. On the basis of this, ANP also comes up with a prognosis, which NU.nl also reports on. It is not clear whether a forecast can still be made in the coming hours.
