Polling station staff count votes after provincial elections in The Hague in 2015 | Bart Maat/AFP via Getty Images Dutch votes to be counted manually over hacking fears ‘We must rely on the good old paper,’ interior minister says.

The Netherlands is to change the way it counts votes in elections because of software problems and fears of Russian hacking.

Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk told the broadcaster RTL on Wednesday that all votes cast in the March 15 national election will be counted manually.

"Since there is international evidence that the Russians might have interest in the electoral process, we must rely on good old paper," Plasterk said.

RTL reported earlier this week that cybersecurity experts in the Netherlands had warned of vulnerabilities in the country's electoral system. The Electoral Council had known about some of the issues since 2011 but no action had been taken.

Dutch voters already make their choice using paper and pencil. The results of the manual count are then transferred to a USB stick. Experts said the USB is not encrypted and is easy to manipulate.

Foreign Minister Bert Koenders earlier this month said the government was on "high alert" for any Russian attempts to intervene in the election.