The European Commission has told the Netherlands not to publish the results of the May 22 European parliamentary elections before the rest of the EU has voted.

Most other EU countries go to the polls on Sunday May 25 and there is an agreement between member states that no results should be published until late that evening, the Volkskrant says. Britain will also hold its election on May 22.

However, during the last EU elections in 2009, the Netherlands did allow councils to publish preliminary results on the Thursday evening.

Reprimand

The home affairs ministry defended the decision at the time, saying that people wanted to know the results, and that the results were only preliminary. Now a spokesman for the Dutch election council Kiesraad has confirmed the Netherlands has been reprimanded.

The results will now only be sent to the media after 23.00 on Sunday evening when the Italian polling stations close. ‘We will keep to the European agreement,’ the ministry told the Volkskrant.

Nevertheless, Nos television will publish its traditional exit poll once the Dutch vote ends at 21.00 hours, based on 40,000 voters. In general the exist poll provides a fairly reliable estimate of the eventual outcome.

Opinion polls at the moment say the D66 Liberals are likely to emerge as the biggest party. D66 and Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration PVV are both on target to each take four of the Netherlands 26 seats.