Universal suffrage is not so universal in the Netherlands
Not all taxpayers in the Netherlands are created equal and much needs to be done to ensure everyone has the right to vote, say Sally Wyatt and Hans Radder. It is 100 years since the introduction of universal suffrage and the lower house of parliament is organising a series of activities aimed at greater public awareness of the value of our parliamentary democracy in which ‘every vote is of equal value’. The first kink in the current system is that people with a Dutch passport who have been living, say, in Canada for 20 years are eligible to vote in both the national and European elections. A person who has lived in this country for 20 years and paid tax for every one of them is deprived of the democratic right to vote in the national and provincial elections because she holds a Canadian passport and not a Dutch one. The introduction of truly universal suffrage in the Netherlands and Europe would bring such an inclusive patriotism one step closer.
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