2018 Dutch Intelligence and Security Services Act referendum

An advisory referendum on the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (, abbreviated 'Wiv') was held in the Netherlands on 21 March 2018, alongside the municipal elections. It was the second referendum to be held under the Dutch Advisory Referendum Act after the 2016 Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum.

A plurality of voters (49.44%) voted against the law, resulting in its rejection. Voter turnout was 51.5%, above the 30% threshold for validation of the result.Results referendum on Wiv: majority against Kiesraad As with the previous referendum, the referendum created a no-show paradox, where the 46.5% of voters who turned out to vote for the bill instead causing its rejection, by helping the referendum meet the quota. If voters who cast for ballots had instead refused to show up, the turnout of 27.5% would have been insufficient for the result to be declared valid.

Although the referendum itself was non-binding, Prime Minister Mark Rutte had promised to take a potential "no" vote into account prior to the referendum.

Background The draft Intelligence and Security Agencies Act 2017 was laid before the States General by the Government of the Netherlands at the end of 2016. On 14 February 2017, a majority in the House of Representatives voted in support of the act, which was then approved in the Senate on 11 July.

Request Stage Required Received Valid Preliminary requests 10,000 19,266 17,162 Definitive requests 300,000 417,354 384,126

A campaign to obtain sufficient support declarations for a referendum was initiated by a group of students at the University of Amsterdam concerned about the sweeping surveillance powers granted to the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) under the law. On 1 November 2017, the Electoral Council () announced that a sufficient number of signatures had been collected to trigger an advisory referendum on the tapping law, with 384,126 valid signatures, over 92 percent of those collected, well above the 300,000 required for a referendum.

Party positions The referendum comes after the formation of the Third Rutte cabinet following the 2017 general election, with the coalition divided whether to hold a referendum on the law, Democrats 66 (D66) being the only one of the four coalition parties that voted against disregarding the result ahead of the referendum.

The party positions listed below are based on the vote of the law in the House of Representatives on 14 February 2017, with the exception of Forum for Democracy (FvD), which was not represented in the lower chamber before the 2017 general election.

Party Seats Position People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Party for Freedom Christian Democratic Appeal Democrats 66 GreenLeft Socialist Party Labour Party Christian Union Party for the Animals 50PLUS Reformed Political Party Denk Forum for Democracy

Opinion polls Vote in referendum Polling firm Date For Against Don't know Will not vote Lead Ipsos 20 Mar 2018 53 34 13 – 19 I&O Research 12 Mar 2018 51 30 19 – 21 Peil.nl 11 Mar 2018 45 42 13 – 3 Kantar Public 4 Mar 2018 35 24 26 15 10 Ipsos 26 Feb 2018 48 32 20 – 16 I&O Research 6 Feb 2018 42 28 30 – 14 Kantar Public 28 Jan 2018 32 22 30 16 10 Peil.nl 3 Dec 2017 40 60 – – 20 I&O Research 30 Oct 2017 52 32 17 – 20 I&O Research 9 Oct 2017 50 30 20 – 20 I&O Research 11 Sep 2017 60 24 17 – 36

Support for the law Polling firm Date For Against Don't know Lead GfK 31 Oct 2017 34 53 13 19 GfK 23 Oct 2017 40 49 11 9

Results

Results by province or territory Province or territory Electorate Voter turnout In favour Against Blank Votes % Votes % Votes %387,61154.1699,78747.72100,85048.238,4724.05297,20650.2867,37745.2477,16851.814,3902.95504,85542.8097,59445.30111,04951.556,7793.151,602,01654.19415,20748.01411,92447.6337,7374.36458,13137.2261,20035.97105,00961.723,9162.30873,20150.23206,90147.33209,89148.0220,3104.651,947,97348.43469,11549.90430,93245.8440,0324.262,075,43652.87453,84041.51598,60654.7540,9273.74882,34456.92247,30949.41230,93046.1422,3114.46969,42157.65253,20845.46278,93550.0824,8634.46291,51456.7088,95054.0269,17442.016,5363.972,760,06551.22661,82247.00692,44349.1754,0093.84 Caribbean Netherlands15,1596.0631834.9858564.3660.66Source: Kiesraad

References

Notes

External links

Text of the law Announcement of the Electoral Council on the referendum