2011 Dutch Senate election

Last updated

Elections of the Dutch Senate were held on 23 May 2011, following the provincial elections on 2 March 2011. [1] The 566 members of the twelve States-Provincial elected the 75 Senate members. The new Senate was installed on 7 June 2011. The term ended on 8 June 2015.

Contents

Participating parties

No.PartyTop candidate
1 Christian Democratic Appeal Elco Brinkman
2 People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Loek Hermans
3 Labour Party Marleen Barth
4 GroenLinks Tof Thissen
5 Socialist Party Tiny Kox
6 Democrats 66 Roger van Boxtel
7 ChristianUnion Roel Kuiper
8 Reformed Political Party Gerrit Holdijk
9 Independent Senate Group Kees de Lange
10 Party for the Animals Niko Koffeman
11 Party for Freedom Machiel de Graaf
12 50PLUS Jan Nagel
13 Koornstra List Ruud Koornstra

Vote weights

The provinces have different population sizes, so the members of the States-Provincial cast weighted votes, to ensure that each vote represents the same number of people. The weight is determined by dividing the population of the province by the number of seats in the States of that province. This number is divided by 100 and rounded.

ProvinceSeatsPopulationVote weight [2]
South Holland 553,527,449641
North Holland 552,691,426489
North Brabant 552,453,936446
Gelderland 552,005,298365
Utrecht 471,228,579261
Overijssel 471,134,434241
Limburg 471,122,631239
Friesland 43647,280151
Groningen 43579,034135
Drenthe 41491,342120
Flevoland 39391,988101
Zeeland 39381,58298

Result

Result of the Dutch Eerste Kamer election, 2011 ZetelsEK2011.svg
Result of the Dutch Eerste Kamer election, 2011
Party20072011 [3] difference
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)1416+2
Labour Party (PvdA)14140
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA)2111−10
Party for Freedom (PVV)010+10
Socialist Party (SP)128 *−4
Democrats 66 (D66)25 *+3
GroenLinks (GL)45+1
ChristianUnion (CU)42−2
Reformed Political Party (SGP)21−1
50PLUS (50+)01+1
Party for the Animals (PvdD)110
Independent Senate Group (OSF)110
Total75750

The coalition parties VVD and CDA and their supporting party, the PVV, won 37 seats in this election, one short of an overall majority. However, the coalition-friendly SGP won the last needed seat, and it is expected that the SGP will help the cabinet in obtaining a majority on most issues. [4]

- * Democrats 66 missed a seat and the Socialist Party gained one due to a mistake of North Holland States-Provincial member Wim Cool, who voted with a blue writing device instead of the prescribed red one. [5]

References

  1. "Electoral Calendar -worldwide elections". mherrera.org. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
  2. Stemwaarden Eerste Kamerverkiezing 2011 Archived 2011-03-11 at the Wayback Machine , Kiesraad
  3. Prognose zetelverdeling Eerste Kamer volgens ANP Archived 2011-03-05 at the Wayback Machine , Nederlands Dagblad
  4. Rutte haalt met SGP meerderheid in Eerste Kamer, Elsevier, 23 May 2011
  5. D66 stem senaat blijft ongeldig Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine , Nieuws.nl, 31 May 2011