Dutch voters head to polls in a knife-edge election focused on housing and Wilders

THE HAGUE Netherlands AP Polls opened across the Netherlands on Wednesday in a close-run snap electoral contest called after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders brought down the last four-party coalition in a dispute over a crackdown on immigration In The Hague a steady stream of commuters stopped to vote at a polling station set up at the city s central railway station next to the Dutch parliament building Opinion polls forecast a close finish with Wilders Party for Freedom holding a narrow lead over a group of more moderate parties including the center-left bloc of the Labor Party and Green Left and the center-right Christian Democrats It hasn t been this tense for a long time Wilders explained late Tuesday on Dutch news show Nieuwsuur after leaders held a final debate Polls close at p m and broadcasters publish an initial exit poll right away followed by an update a half hour later The Dutch system of proportional representation all but guarantees that no single party can win a majority Negotiations will likely begin Thursday into the makeup of the next governing coalition THIS IS A EMERGING NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below THE HAGUE Netherlands AP Dutch voters are going to the polls Wednesday in a knife-edge general poll after a campaign that focused on migration a housing predicament and whether parties will work with anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders if his Party for Freedom repeats its stunning achievement from two years ago The vote comes against a backdrop of deep polarization in this nation of million and violence at a newest anti-immigration rally in The Hague and at protests across the countries against new asylum-seeker centers Polls suggest that Wilders party which is calling for a total halt to asylum-seekers entering the Netherlands remains on track to win the largest number of seats in the -seat House of Representatives but other more moderate parties are closing the gap and pollsters caution that multiple people wait until the very last minute to decide who to vote for Polls open at a m and close at p m Broadcasters publish an exit poll as soon as voting ends and update it a half-hour later Voters can cast their ballots at venues from city halls to schools but also historic windmills churches a zoo a former prison in Arnhem and the iconic Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam After the results are known parties have to negotiate the makeup of the next coalition regime in this country whose proportional representation system all but guarantees that no one party can rule alone Mainstream parties have ruled out working with Wilders arguing that his decision to torpedo the outgoing four-party coalition earlier this year in a dispute over a crackdown on migration underscored that he is an untrustworthy coalition partner Rob Jetten leader of the center-left D party that has risen in polls as the campaign wore on announced in a final televised debate that his party wants to rein in migration but also accommodate asylum-seekers fleeing war and violence And he advised Wilders that voters can choose again the day after to listen to your grumpy hatred for another years or choose with positive power to just get to work and tackle this matter and solve it Frans Timmermans the former European Commission vice president who now leads the center-left bloc of the Labor Party and Green Left also took aim at Wilders in the final debate saying he is looking forward to the day and that day is on the morrow that we can put an end to the Wilders era Wilders rejects arguments that he had failed to deliver on his campaign pledges despite being the largest party in parliament blaming other parties for stymying his plans If I had been prime minister which I earned as leader of the biggest party then we would have rolled out that agenda he announced Wilders backed away from becoming prime minister during negotiations after the last polling because he did not have the patronage of expected coalition partners The polling could see a reformist party New Social Contract that won seats at the last electoral process and joined the outgoing coalition all but erased from the Dutch political map with polls predicting it may lose all or almost all of its seats It s slump in popularity is an apparent backlash against the party s decision to join a coalition with Wilders and follows the departure of its popular leader Pieter Omtzigt who quit politics in April citing his mental wellness Source