Voters cast ballots until 9pm in elections that could set country on different course after Mark Rutte’s four consecutive governments

• Read our full report: Far-right party set to win most seats in Dutch elections, exit polls show

The first exit poll is expected in about 20 minutes. Stay tuned!

More pictures from election day in the Netherlands.

A much-admired MP who launched his own party in the summer is hoping for electoral success

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Usually in European elections the insurgent candidates come from the outer reaches of the political spectrum: the far left or, more often of late, the far right. This one comes solidly from the centre. He could hardly be less fringe if he tried.

Days after Pieter Omtzigt, a Dutch Christian Democrat MP for 18 years, announced in August he was founding a new party to “do politics differently”, it was topping the polls. Two days from the vote, it is vying for the lead in the parliamentary election.

A benefits fraud affair and claims of institutional racism are among issues that led to crisis of trust before this week’s general election

Sandra Palmen was the whistleblower in a scandal that saw 31,000 Dutch families falsely accused of fraud – often dual nationals, single mothers or working families in less affluent postcodes who were financially and personally ruined by unjustly being made to repay every cent from years of childcare benefits.

But Palmen, a top inhouse lawyer who in 2017 wrote an official memo saying an anti-fraud drive had gone desperately wrong, was the only tax-office employee who was pushed out. Now she is standing for a new political party headed by a campaigning backbencher, Pieter Omtzigt, advocating a social contract to repair a series of government scandals in the Netherlands.