Waterschappen /水管理委員会選挙

On March 20th of this year, the local election was held for all the 12 states of the Netherlands as well as the Waterschappen election. It is an administrative organization that is independent of the state or local municipality with the purpose of managing flood control facilities and managing water conditions. Water management is considered as an important control point in the Netherlands, which has a lot of polders, so this old and independent organization was established.

Everybody has the right to vote for Waterschappen election regardless of the nationality, as long as they live in the Netherlands. The voting pass is sent to each voter two weeks before the election date, and I had received mine. On election day, the voter must bring this voting pass and ID card to be able to vote.

In the Netherlands, the voting day is usually set on a Wednesday, unlike in Japan which is held on a non-working day, usually Sunday. However, in terms of polling station, it is similar to Japan because it also uses public buildings like schools as its voting places.

However, unlike in Japan where the polling place is designated, it is possible to vote anywhere in the region I am registered in, as long it is included in the local government's authority. The polling station we went to is an elementary school less than a minute away from our house.

This ballot will be distributed when you present your voting pass and ID card at the reception area of the polling place.

This ballot has all the candidate's names printed according to the list of the candidate party. The voting process is simple. We just need to shade the left hand frame beside the name of the candidate who you want to vote from the list using the red pencils provided.

After that, you just put the ballots in the designated ballot box. The box on the right is for the local election and the box on left is for the waterschappen election.