Polls open in closely fought Netherlands election: Report

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Polls opened on Wednesday in a Netherlands election that has shaped into a tight race between the Liberals of current Prime Minister Mark Rutte and rising Labour star Diederick Samsom.

Over 12 million voters will elect MPs for the 150-seat lower house after polling stations opened at around 7:30 am (5.30 am GMT). Voting ends at 9 pm (7 pm GMT) with an indication of results from exit polls expected shortly after.

The election is seen as a barometer of anti-European Union sentiment in the eurozone's fifth-largest economy where many taxpayers are fed up with bailing out indebted southern European nations while swallowing their own budget cuts.

But despite a campaign dominated by anti-Brussels rhetoric, the vote is expected to return a centrist coalition government led either by Rutte or Samsom that will remain committed to austerity and staying in the EU.