Case Study: Elections in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, elections are held for three different levels of governance. The parliament has two chambers, one of which is elected directly by Dutch citizens. The Netherlands has a list system of proportional representation, without separate constituencies and electoral hurdles.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy. One of the main features of this system is that Dutch citizens have the right to elect their representatives in freedom and secrecy. In the Netherlands, the Lower House of Parliament (Second Chamber), the provincial councils, the municipal councils and the Dutch delegation in the European Parliament are directly elected by the voters.

Second Chamber elections normally take place every four years. They take place at an earlier date only if a government is forced to resign by parliament or if it decides to resign itself, for instance because of serious internal disagreement.

Such ‘snap elections’ were held in November 2006 after the resignation of the cabinet in June 2006. Elections for the provincial and municipal councils also take place every four years. In these two cases, snap elections are not possible. After an early resignation of a provincial or municipal executive (the former hardly ever being the case), a new one has to be formed on the basis of the existing party-political constellation in the provincial or municipal council.

Voters elect the members of the European Parliament every five years, like in all the other member countries of the European Union (EU). The Upper House of Parliament (First Chamber or Senate) is not directly elected by the citizens but by the members of the provincial councils, this within three months after the elections for the latter.

Election Committees

The Netherlands has a list system of proportional representation. Some political scientists have characterized the Netherlands as a country with one of the most proportional electoral systems in the world. There are no parliamentary constituencies within the country because the entire country itself is one large constituency. For party-political and administrative purposes, however, the country has been divided into nineteen parliamentary regions (kieskringen), each covering a province or part of a province.

Each region has its own election committee. Furthermore, there is a central election committee for all elections. Thus, the Election Council in The Hague acts as the central election committee in Second Chamber elections. Political parties taking part in the elections submit a list of candidates to the central election committee.

Conditions

Parties wishing to take part in a national election must register with the Election Council in The Hague by a certain date. The Elections Act states that parties must be officially registered as associations. Newly formed parties or organised interest groups can also take part in an election. Parties or groups who do not yet have members in parliament must pay a deposit of € 11,250.

This may be more than a small group can afford. The deposit is meant to prevent people from putting themselves forward as candidates just for the fun of it. The deposit is refunded if the party or group polls at least three-quarters of the number of votes needed to obtain a seat, about 0.5 per cent of the total number of valid votes cast.

Besides the deposit, new parties are also obliged to present a list of thirty signatures of people supporting the party list of candidates in one of the nineteen regions. So, in national elections 570 (19 x 30) signatures are needed for parties wishing to take part in all the nineteen regions of the country (which is not necessarily the case).

Voting

In the Netherlands, voting is voluntary, not compulsory. Everyone who is entitled to vote receives a polling card. On election day, the voter takes his card to the polling station. Voting machines have been in use for a number of years, but lack of security provisions have caused a return to the ballot paper and the red pencil. Voters tick a box for their parties’ candidate.

The Netherlands has an open ballot structure, which means that voters can select the list candidate they prefer; they do not have to select the first candidate on a party’s list, but they can instead vote for a candidate lower down the list. This is called a ‘preferential vote’. Many electors cast preferential votes, for instance, because the candidate is well known in the region or because he or she has clear-cut views on certain topics.

Voters can cast a blank vote too; their vote is then included in the turnout although they have not expressed a preference for a specific party or candidate. A three-person committee at the polling station ensures that everything is done according to the rules. Anyone wishing to sit on the polling committee can apply to the municipal authorities.

The committee collects the polling cards and shows the voter the way to the voting machine (until recently) or gives him or her the ballot paper. Everybody wishing to do so can attend the counting of the votes after the polling station’s closing time.

Distribution of Seats

The quota – that is the number of votes that entitles a party to one seat – can be established once it is known how many valid votes have been cast. There are 150 seats in the Second Chamber, so if nine million voters cast valid votes, the quota is nine million divided by 150, or 60,000. The higher the turnout, the higher the quota.

As the number of valid votes increases, the number of votes a party needs to obtain a seat increases proportionally. If the quota is established at 60,000 and a party polls 380,000 votes, it is entitled to six seats in any case, but it has some leftover votes too: 20,000 in this case. There are two ways of distributing these remaining votes.

In municipalities with a population of less than 20,000, the ‘largest remainder method’ is used. The party with most leftover votes (the greatest remainder) is then awarded the first remaining seat, the party with the second largest remainder the next one, and so on until all the remaining seats have been awarded.

In parliamentary, provincial and larger municipal council elections, the ‘highest average method’ is used to allocate the remaining seats. The method is as follows. Suppose the quota is 60,000. Party A polls 380,000 votes. It is entitled to six seats in any case (380,000/60,000 = 6 plus a remainder).

If party A were to be given seven seats, the average number of votes per seat would be 54,286 (380,000/7). If this average is higher than the average of the other parties with leftover votes, the first available seat goes to party A; the second available seat goes to the party with the second highest average and so on until all the remaining seats have been awarded. This method favors the major parties to some extent.

For example, suppose party B polls 2,355,000 votes at the same election. It will be awarded 39 seats (2,355,000/60,000 = 39 plus a remainder) and still has 15,000 leftover votes, which is less than party A has. Using the ‘highest average method’, the next seat goes to the biggest party, party B; however, if party B were to be given 40 seats, its average would be 2,355,000/40 = 58,875 votes per seat.

Electoral Alliances

Parties whose political views are close together sometimes link their lists so that their leftover votes are counted together, thus increasing their chances of acquiring an available seat in the same way as larger parties. Electoral alliances of this kind enable small parties to obtain seats they could never obtain on their own. The two small Protestant parties in the Netherlands have frequently linked their lists.

Electoral Platforms

Before the elections, the parties draw up their electoral platforms, setting out their views on what they consider to be important political issues – how they think unemployment, national health problems or traffic-jams should be tackled, for instance. A platform is usually a detailed, practical document based on a political programme, which outlines the ideological basis and principles of a political party.

Source: The Dutch Political System in a Nutshell