Early Parliamentary Elections, 29 October 2025

Following an invitation from the Government of the Netherlands to observe the 29 October 2025 early parliamentary elections, and in accordance with its mandate, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) undertook a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) from 14 to 17 July. The ODIHR NAM was comprised of Goran Petrov and Yelena Kovalyova, ODIHR Election Advisers.

The purpose of the mission was to assess the pre-election environment and preparations for the elections. Based on this assessment, the NAM recommends whether to deploy an ODIHR election-related activity for the forthcoming elections, and if so, what type of activity best meets the identified needs. Meetings were held with officials from state institutions and the election administration, as well as representatives of the judiciary, media, political parties and civil society. A list of meetings is annexed to this report.

Expert Team at a glance

Team of three experts from three OSCE participating States, based in The Hague

Expert Team schedule

14 October: Arrival of the Expert Team

15 October: Opening

29 October: Election Day

31 October: Departure of the Expert Team

Following an invitation to observe the early parliamentary elections in the Netherlands scheduled for 29 October 2025, based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) conducted between 13 and 17 July, and in accordance with its mandate, ODIHR has deployed an Election Expert Team (EET) for these elections.

The Team will assess whether the elections are held in line with OSCE commitments and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections, as well as with national legislation. 

The ODIHR EET will closely examine components of the election identified as meriting attention by the ODIHR NAM, specifically: 

• election-related activities on social media and institutional resilience during election period;

• campaign financing.

The mission will visit a limited number of polling stations on election day and systematic observation of voting, counting or tabulation procedures is not envisaged.  

Previous Elections

ODIHR has previously observed 5 elections in the country, most recently the 2021 parliamentary elections.