Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

The Netherlands holds provincial elections on Wednesday, March 7, 2007. Members of the country's twelve provincial councils are chosen every four years by the largest average method of proportional representation - the same system used to elect the Tweede Kamer or House of Representatives of the Dutch States-General (Parliament). However, unlike in House elections, there is no statutory threshold for participating in the distribution of provincial council seats.

Turnout in recent Dutch provincial elections has been markedly lower than in parliamentary elections. In the last two provincial polls, held in 1999 and 2003, voter turnout was 45.6% and 47.6%, respectively. By comparison, an average of eighty percent of Dutch voters have taken part in the three most recent House elections.

In May of this year, the newly-elected provincial councils will in turn choose members of the upper house of the Dutch Parliament, the Eerste Kamer or Senate. Since legislative bills must be approved by both the Senate and the House before they can become law, tomorrow's vote is seen as an early test of the recently formed Christian Democratic-Labour-Christian Union coalition government.

Elections to the Dutch Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) has more information on political parties and elections in the Netherlands.

Update

The Dutch Electoral Council (Kiesraad) reports definitive results of the March 7 provincial elections were as follows:

Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) - 1,412,856 votes (25.0%), 151 seats
Labour Party (PvdA) - 1,013,786 votes (17.9%), 114 seats
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) - 1,023,189 votes (18.1%), 101 seats
Socialist Party (SP) - 838,273 votes (14.8%), 83 seats
Christian Union (CU) - 309,325 votes (5.5%), 35 seats
Green Left (GL) - 347,709 votes (6.1%), 32 seats
Political Reformed Party (SGP) - 134,993 votes (2.4%), 14 seats
Democrats 66 (D66) - 145,058 votes (2.6%), 9 seats
Party for the Animals (PvdD) - 144,132 votes (2.5%), 9 seats
Christian Union-Political Reformed Party (CU-SGP) - 49,823 votes (0.9%), 3 seats
Others - 236,320 votes (4.2%), 13 seats

The Party for Freedom (PVV) did not take part in the election.

In all, there were 5,655,464 valid votes and 23,900 invalid ballots, for a turnout of 5,679,364 voters, or 46.4% of 12,238,814 registered electors; detailed figures are available on the Kiesraad's election results website.

On the basis of provincial election results, it is estimated the Christian Democratic-Labour-Christian Union coalition government will command a 41-34 majority in the Senate.