Dutch Labour party leader Wouter Bos was turned away from a polling station in Amsterdam on Wednesday because he showed up to vote without all the right papers. That’s not the way to start off an election day now is it?

The Labour leader, Bos, who is usually calm and relaxed, cameras Bos, at first looked stunned In front of dozens of television and then sheepish before hurrying home to fetch the correct documentation.

Bos has seen a commanding opinion poll lead vanish over recent months as his rival, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, took the credit for an economic recovery in the run-up to Wednesday’s parliamentary election.

There’s no word yet on how he did in the election but that couldn’t have been a good Omen.