1977 Dutch general election

1977 Dutch general election

←  1972 25 May 1977 1981  →
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	88.1% ( 4.6 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– PvdA Joop den Uyl 33.8% 53 +10 CDA Dries van Agt 31.9% 49 +1 VVD Hans Wiegel 17.9% 28 +6 D66 Jan Terlouw 5.4% 8 +2 SGP Hette Abma 2.1% 3 0 CPN Marcus Bakker 1.7% 2 −5 PPR Ria Beckers 1.6% 3 −4 GPV Bart Verbrugh 0.9% 1 −1 PSP Bram van der Lek 0.9% 1 −1 BP Hendrik Koekoek 0.8% 1 −2 DS'70 Willem Drees Jr. 0.7% 1 −5 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Most voted-for party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after Den Uyl cabinet PvdA–KVP–ARP–D66–PPR First Van Agt cabinet CDA–VVD

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 25 May 1977. ^[1] The Labour Party remained the largest party, winning 53 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives. ^[2] Following the election, it took 208 days of negotiations to form a new government. This was a European record for longest government formation that stood until after the 2010 Belgian general election. ^[3] The Christian Democratic Appeal was formed by the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), Christian Historical Union (CHU) and the Catholic People's Party (KVP) in 1976. The first joint party leader was a member of the KVP, Dries van Agt.

Eventually a coalition was formed during the 1977 Dutch cabinet formation between the Christian Democratic Appeal and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy with Van Agt as Prime Minister.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Party	2,813,793	33.83	53	+10
	Christian Democratic Appeal	2,652,278	31.89	49	+1
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,492,689	17.95	28	+6
	Democrats 66	452,423	5.44	8	+2
	Reformed Political Party	177,010	2.13	3	0
	Communist Party of the Netherlands	143,481	1.73	2	–5
	Political Party of Radicals	140,910	1.69	3	–4
	Reformed Political League	79,421	0.95	1	–1
	Pacifist Socialist Party	77,972	0.94	1	–1
	Farmers' Party	69,914	0.84	1	–2
	Democratic Socialists '70	59,487	0.72	1	–5
	Reformatory Political Federation	53,220	0.64	0	New
	Dutch People's Union	33,434	0.40	0	New
	Roman Catholic Party of the Netherlands	33,227	0.40	0	–1
	Socialist Party	24,420	0.29	0	New
	Federation of Elderly Parties of the Netherlands	4,379	0.05	0	New
	Union Against Arbitrariness of Civil Servants	4,110	0.05	0	New
	Communist Unity Movement of the Netherlands	2,649	0.03	0	New
	Democratic Action Centre	2,150	0.03	0	New
	Party of the Taxpayers	201	0.00	0	New
	European Conservative Union	197	0.00	0	New
	Jusia List	91	0.00	0	New
	Dutch Middle Class Party	89	0.00	0	0
	Griek List	67	0.00	0	New
Total		8,317,612	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		8,317,612	99.42
Invalid/blank votes		48,217	0.58
Total votes		8,365,829	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		9,497,999	88.08
Source: Kiesraad [4]

By province

Results by province ^[4]

Province	PvdA	CDA	VVD	D'66	SGP	CPN	PPR	GPV	PSP	BP	DS'70	Others
Drenthe	41.5	27.1	18.2	4.4	0.4	1.2	1.4	1.8	0.6	1.3	0.6	1.5
Friesland	37.3	37.4	12.3	4.4	0.9	1.5	1.3	1.6	0.8	0.6	0.6	1.3
Gelderland	30.8	35.5	17.2	4.8	3.7	0.6	1.7	0.7	0.9	1.4	0.5	2.2
Groningen	42.4	24.3	14.4	4.4	0.3	4.3	1.9	4.0	1.3	0.7	0.6	1.4
Limburg	30.1	44.6	14.7	3.3	0.1	1.1	1.9	0.1	0.7	1.0	0.4	2.0
North Brabant	28.8	43.7	15.7	5.0	0.5	0.6	1.6	0.2	0.8	1.1	0.5	1.5
North Holland	35.4	22.9	21.7	7.3	0.5	4.5	2.1	0.4	1.5	0.6	1.2	1.9
Overijssel	31.0	39.5	13.2	4.2	2.9	1.1	1.3	2.2	0.5	1.2	0.4	2.5
South Holland	37.9	24.6	19.9	6.1	3.8	1.3	1.5	0.8	0.8	0.4	0.9	2.0
Southern IJsselmeer Polders	33.1	29.0	18.9	6.7	1.0	2.9	2.8	1.3	0.6	0.6	0.7	2.4
Utrecht	28.2	30.5	22.1	6.6	3.2	0.9	1.9	1.6	1.3	0.7	0.7	2.3
Zeeland	32.6	29.8	17.3	4.4	8.4	0.4	1.5	1.6	0.5	1.0	0.6	1.9

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1396 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Nohlen & Stöver, p1414
3. Laurent Thomet (January 8, 2011). "Belgium's shoddy political record poses financial threat". Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved 2011-01-27. Without a government for nearly seven months, Belgium now holds a dubious record in Europe and with no end in sight to the political crisis, fears are growing of a backlash from watchful markets. The divided country on Saturday broke the 208-day mark set by the Netherlands in 1977 for being without a government.
4. "Tweede Kamer 25 mei 1977". Kiesraad (in Dutch). Retrieved 4 November 2021.