European Parliament election, 2009 (Netherlands)
The European elections in the Netherlands in 2009 was held on June 4, 2009. It was conducted as part of the EU held the 2009 European elections, which were awarded in the Netherlands, 25 of the 736 seats in the European Parliament. If the Treaty of Lisbon during the 2009-14 legislative session take effect, another Dutch MPs will move up in the Parliament.
Electoral system and voters
The election was by proportional representation with preferential votes in a nationwide constituency. It was the possibility of Connections list. The allocation of seats to the (connected) party lists was carried out according to the D' Hondt method. The allocation of seats to the various lists within a connection was made after the Hare / Niemeyer method.
For the first time were the citizens of the Netherlands Antilles and entitled to vote on Aruba. Although these are the overseas territories of the Netherlands is not part of the European Union; a judgment of the Dutch Council of State, however, had determined that discrimination of Dutch nationals within and outside the European continent was unconstitutional. Previously, only the Dutch, who lived on the continent for at least ten years, may participate in the elections. The revision approximately 210,000 voters were added, of which only about 21,000 actually enlisted himself into the electoral register. In addition, subjects were first eligible to vote who are under guardianship. First time no voting machines were used more after their safety was to manipulation in doubt for the counting of votes.
Choice advertiser parties
A total of seventeen came to party lists for election, seven of which were previously represented in the European Parliament. The party Europa Transparant, who won at the 2004 European election, two members of parliament, no longer went to.
Since the D' Hondt method slightly favored larger parties at the expense of smaller parties, the collaboration of different parties of similar orientation. The two Christian parties ChristianUnion and SGP competed with a common list called ChristianUnion / SGP. Other parties formed Connections list:
- The Christian Democrat CDA with ChristianUnion / SGP,
- The liberal parties VVD and D66,
- The social democratic PvdA with the green Groen Links.
In fact, the list caused connection between PvdA and Groen Links, that the latter won an additional seat that would otherwise have gone to the PVV. The remaining compounds were without effect on the final result.
Results
The turnout was 36.9 %, which is below the European average ( 43.1 %) and also under the turnout in the 2004 European elections ( 39.3 %).
The Christian Democratic CDA lost slightly compared to 2004, was charged with five seats, but again the strongest party. The biggest winner of the election was the right-wing populist PVV party, which contested the first time and immediately became the second largest party. The D66 could win votes. The most important election loser was the PvdA, which lost almost half of its voting share. In addition, were able to precisely those parties that had belonged to the Parliament since 2004, may recover it again; the SGP won by the joint list with the ChristianUnion first one seat
Specifically, the parties achieved the following results:
Allocation of the parties to groups in the European Parliament
While most Dutch parties joined again after the election the political groups in the European Parliament, where they had previously listened to, showed up for the party ChristianUnion difficulties. This was before the election of the Independence and Democracy Group consulted, but no longer met after the election, the conditions for the establishment of a fraction and dissolved. ChristianUnion and SGP therefore entered into negotiations with the founders of the newly formed conservative faction ECR. This demanded the SGP, however, to change in front of a group membership positions on gender equality, which the SGP refused. Then ChristianUnion joined the ECR Group in alone while the SGP, the eurosceptic EFD Group joined.
The first elected to the European Parliament, representatives of the PVV remained attached Member.
Allocation of the 26 seat after the Treaty of Lisbon
If the Treaty of Lisbon during the election period 2009-14 to enter into force, the Netherlands will be allowed to appoint an additional deputies in the European Parliament. After the election results would be to this 26 seat of the PVV. However, the proposal was the Dutch State Secretary Ank Bijleveld - Schouten, consequently, the additional seat should be allocated based on the result of the election in 2009, has not yet officially decided at the time of the election by the Dutch Parliament.
After the election, therefore the Partij voor de Dieren ( PvdD ) objected because the Ministry did not consider certain arguments of the Dutch electoral authority, according to which the distribution of seats turn out slightly different and the possible 26 seats would fall to the PvdD. Several parties of the Dutch Parliament spoke out against this position of PvdD because it implies a subsequent change of election rules. Finally, the State Council was seized of the matter, which is to answer the question.
Controversy surrounding the publication of the election results
A controversy finally came to the publication of the Dutch election results. The 2009 European elections took four days ( until June 7 from 4 ), the Netherlands chose on the first possible day. The European Commission, however, the election results from all Member States should be published at the same time, on the one hand to emphasize the unity of the European elections and also to prevent interference of the election by the already known results in other Member States.
In fact, the Dutch government initially gave no official election results today. However, all the individual communities as already in the 2004 European elections published their respective results on the evening of June 4, so - could the media be calculated by simply adding the result - with the exception of the votes overseas absentee votes. In fact, therefore, media reported in all European countries immediately after the Dutch elections on the local results.
Other states adopted the rule not to publish election results before the closure of the last polling stations on June 7 by 22 clock in the next few days not quite accurate. So first projections were about even in Germany after the closure of the German polling stations on June 7 by 18 clock published due to exit polls which allowed fairly accurate information about the results. However, the Netherlands was the only country to have been published in the official count actually results in advance.