Media Release: Post-Election Preliminary Statement, GEOM NL 2025
Media Release
Post-Election Preliminary Statement, GEOM NL 2025
Gender Election Observation Mission (GEOM) congratulates Electoral Council for conducting a successful election with brilliant improvements by administering gender balance and preferences in electoral management.
The Hague, 7th November 2025
The Limited Gender Election Observation Mission (GEOM) Netherlands 2025, led by Director Sabra Bano congratulates the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Electoral Council of the Netherlands for having an exemplary gender-balanced electoral operational practice. The positive conduct of the general elections demonstrated a stable democratic structure of high quality. The easily accessible polling stations equipped with trained and motivated staff have contributed to 78,4% voter turnout.
The 29 October 2025 Elections in the Netherlands marked a historic milestone, achieving not only the highest number of female parliamentarians elected (43%) but also a female-majority composition of the Electoral Council, as well as a remarkable increase of women as heads of polling stations.
GEOM NL 2025 assessment has been focussed on observing women’s electoral participation as administrators, citizens and candidates. The Mission aimed at observing the impact of the findings and recommendations of previous missions especially GEOM NL 2017 and GEOM NL2021 on the electoral landscape of The Netherlands. The limited election day observation was conducted with a team of 5 members deployed in North and South Holland.
The GEOM NL 2025 final report will be issued within 3 weeks after Election Day, indicating the Mission’s findings and highlighting its recommendations with the aim to further contribute to the promotion of gender parity in electoral and governance processes in the Netherlands.
On the 29th of October, Gender Concerns International successfully conducted a limited assessment mission of the Dutch House of Representative Elections 2025. In total, 27 parties fielded 1,166 candidates competing for 150 seats in the House of Representatives. Notably, only 8 political parties were headed by a female leader, while the remaining 19 were led by men.
During the assessment mission, the team particularly observed recent developments on recommendations issued through the 2021 and 2017 GEOM Reports, covering the following areas.
A. Election Administration/Management Bodies
a. Electoral Council (Kiesraad)
GEOM findings show that women now represent the majority of The Electoral Council, in line with the recommendations of GEOM 2017 and GEOM 2021 as currently they hold 4 out of 7 seats on the Electoral Council.
GEOM NL 2021, reported the that merely 2 out of 7 members of the Electoral Council were women, the Mission made the following recommendation:
"The Electoral Council (Kiesraad) must reflect gender equality itself as was suggested through GEOM NL 2017. To take female electoral interests into account, women must equally, if not in majority, be represented within this body to influence overall electoral administrative practice."
b. Heads of Polling Stations
GEOM NL 2017, recommended the Electoral Council that it encourages women, particularly from minorityy groups, to head the polling stations. In 2021, 53.6 per cent of polling stations were headed by women. GEOM NL 2025 noted the inclusion of women from ethnic minorities and people with preferred identity as heads of polling station.
B. Political Parties
a. Candidate List
GEOM NL2021 recommended that political parties list their candidates based on gender parity, following a 1:1 male-to-female ratio.
GEOM noted many female-majority and gender-diverse candidate list for the 2025 Elections, including PvdA, BBB, SP, PvdD, Vrede voor Dieren, BIJ1, ELLECT, and Partij voor de Rechtstaat. The only party with an exact 1:1 male-to- female ratio is D66. The remaining 18 parties maintained male-majority lists, with the SGP notably being the only party to not field a single female candidate.
C. Impact on Other Mission’s Gender Reporting
Prior to 2017 no election observation report noted gender imbalance at the level of the Electoral Council in The Netherlands. Nor were any women organisations consulted during Pre-election interactions. Following the 2017 elections, some international election observation missions began to acknowledge this imbalance and started including major women organisations in pre- election consultations. Gender Concerns is pleased to note this positive trend and welcomes the growing recognition among other observation missions of the importance of ensuring gender balance at all levels of the electoral process, including within the Kiesraad.
D. Issues with Proxy Voting and QR Codes on Voting Cards
The Mission took notice of possible complications in the voting process due to the introduction of QR codes on voting cards, which raises concerns regarding the proxy voting process.
Context:
The GEOM is a women-led, women-managed and women-reported unique mission initiated by Gender Concerns International in 2007. The assessment team observes polling stations in accordance with the mandate of the organization and national legislations, as well as with a specific gender perspective by democratic standards of objectivity and neutrality, and as a signatory to the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation (DoP). GEOM NL 2025 is a follow-up to the previous missions of GEOM NL 2021 and GEOM NL 2017, as well as the GEOM European Parliament Elections 2024. These missions reflect the imperative need to observe electoral and political participation processes in the Dutch elections through a gendered lens. Gender Concerns International is a gender and development organisation based in The Hague. Through its democracy program the organisation works to support and advocate for gender balance and gender inclusion at all levels of governance and decision-making processes.
For further information please contact
Julia Petrikic
Communication and Outreach
GEOM NL 2025 www.genderconcerns.org and info@genderconcerns.org