A guide to the Netherlands General Election

A general election will be held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 following the fall of the government led by PM Mark Rutte (VVD) in April.

We have put together a brief guide to the election and how you can use electionista to follow it.

The Dutch parliament has 150 seats (76 are needed for a majority and to form a viable coalition) and these will be contested using proportional representation (meaning a party that gets 5% of the vote gets 5% of the seats). Conventionally, following the election, the largest party aims to form a government. If unsuccessful, the second largest party has a go. 

Following a successful agreement, the leader of the largest party in the coalition becomes prime minister (appointed by royal decree).

Here you can find a list of political parties in the Netherlands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_Netherlands#Parliamentary_parties

An average of most recent polls, and change over the past 15 days and since the last election: VVD 34 seats (+3, +3), SP 33 (-2, +18), PvdA 20 (+1, -10), PVV 17 (=, -6), CDA 14 (=, -7), D66 13 (-2, +3), CU 7 (=, +2), GL 5 (+1, -5), PvdD 3 (=, +1), SGP 2 (-1, =), 50Plus 2 (=, +2)

Update - poll average on September 10 and seven day change: VVD 34(-1) PvdA 31(+6) SP 24(-4) PVV 18 CDA 13 D66 13(-1) CU 6 GL 4 PvdD 3 SGP 2 50Plus 2

Update - poll average on September 11 and five day change: VVD 34 seats, PvdA 34(+5), SP 21(-5), PVV 19(+1), CDA 13, D66 12(-1), CU 6, GL 4, SGP 3(+1), PvdD 3, 50Plus 1(-1)

Update - Final - average of Netherlands polls: VVD 35 seats, PvdA 35, SP 21, PVV 18, CDA 12, D66 12, CU 6, GL 4, PvdD 3, SGP 2, 50Plus 2

Follow @electionista on Twitter for the latest polls, and on election day for updates and results.

Hashtags to follow the election: #TK2012 and #nlkiest (we will Tweet others on the day as they emerge).

On our lists page, you can find candidates on Twitter by party.

On electionista’s Netherlands page you can follow all the Tweets, comments and news from Dutch politicians, political parties, government and relevant media. You can also translate the content and Tweets on the page into any language.

Polls open at 730am and close at 9pm.

Update: we’ve put together a little experiment aiming to predict seats based on volume (mentions) of Tweets by parties and candidates.

Posted at Thu, Aug 30th 2012, 11:08
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Posted at Wed, Aug 15th 2012, 12:19
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