In last week’s House of Representatives elections, GroenLinks-PvdA candidate Esmah Lahlah received 217,789 preferential votes. This is by far the highest number among unlisted candidates, according to the official election results announced today.
In addition to Lahlah, who ranked second on the candidate list, his party colleagues Jesse Klaver (3) and Lisa Westerveld (5) also received relatively more voters. These three come from GroenLinks: GroenLinks and PvdA participated in these elections with a list for the first time.
GroenLinks-PvdA party leader Frans Timmermans received 760,520 votes. This amounts to about 46 percent of his party’s total. In other parties, the lion’s share of the votes went to the party leader.
Wilders also had a relatively high number of votes
PVV party leader Geert Wilders received 2 million 230 thousand 352 voters. This isn’t just the largest number among all candidates. He is also the party leader with the highest “intra-party” score: approximately 91 percent of PVV voters voted for Wilders. While 85 percent of VVD voters chose party leader Dilan Yeşilgöz, 90 percent of NSC voters voted for Pieter Omtzigt.
There is one candidate who really owes his seat in parliament to privileged votes: more than 25,000 people voted for Danielle Hirsch (GroenLinks-PvdA), and this was enough to reach the “preferential threshold”. All other candidates who received preferential votes ranked so high on the list that they could have entered the House of Representatives even if their personal scores were not high.
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
