Rules are rules: Dutch health minister's passport rejected at polling station 

A polling station sent the Dutch health minister home to get a valid passport after he presented an expired one while trying to vote in a national election on Wednesday. 

Hugo de Jonge, who heads the Netherlands' response to the coronavirus pandemic, was attempting to vote at a drive-through polling station in Rotterdam. 

"And another piece of advice: take a VALID identification with you," he said in a statement on Twitter afterwards, with the hashtag 'alittledumb'. 

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad quoted the top official at the polling station as saying they could not bend the voting rules for a politician. 

Wednesday was the third and final day of a national election that is seen as a referendum on the conservative government's handling of the pandemic. De Jonge is from a centre-right party in the ruling coalition that is expected to stay in power. 

(With inputs from agencies)