We seek to open up new ways of harnessing the power of the Internet to enhance democracy, civil participation and political transparency in the Netherlands, Europe, and beyond. Through our initiatives we want to drive change through the whole political spectrum.

Key issues

Give all citizens influence in politics

Party leaders to be elected through public primaries:
Leaders of political parties ought to be elected through public primaries. We want more people to be involved in the election of party leaders than just the small core of signed up party members. A party leader does not just stand for his own party cadre, but also for his electorate that is no member but does vote for the party. This position is supported by VVD party leader Mark Rutte. Read on, or read the commentary.

Formateur moet getrapt gekozen worden door leden van de Tweede Kamer:
De formateur van een kabinet moet gekozen worden door de Tweede Kamer. Hierdoor kunnen burgers op een kleinere partij blijven stemmen (bijv. GroenLinks en D66), zonder dat hun stem verloren gaat bij een keuze voor een formateur.
Lees het persbericht of het opinieartikel.

Increasing the amount of preferential votes:
More members of parliament should win their seat on their own electoral succes. With 80% of the electorate habitually voting for the party leader, the makeup of the rest of the parliamentary delegation is limited to the preference of the party leadership rather than electoral opinion. Read our commentary.

Increase political transparancy

Political transparacy: not just the publication of party statements, we want to know what individual parliamentarians vote.

Accessible politicians: Mailyourpolitician enables citizens to get in contact with their elected representatives. Whodoyouvotefor gives citizens the ability to cast a preferential vote.

The New Voting Foundation is...

• an enthousiastic group of students and young professional with a passion for politics and the Internet

• an organisation consisting of people with very different political backgrounds. Most of them are member of a political youth party (CDJA, JOVD, Jonge Democraten, Jonge Socialisten, DWARS, Rood)

The New Voting Foundation is no...

• movement for the abolition of political parties

• pressure group for the eradication of political party programmes

Preferential voting

“Over 80% of the Dutch electorate habitually votes for the party leader, effectively reducing the public representation in the Tweede Kamer to 16 elected politicians and 134 party nominations.”

Stef van Grieken, founder The New Voting Foundation