Dutch General Elections - Sept. 12, 2012 (updated poll)

[nel z bub]

On local news website today. Cause for optimism?
http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/86287/shoph ... -draai-vvd

[radjew]

Well it is not simply a 2 horse race so there is no immediate result on the 13th sept but a lot of horse-trading after the event to form a coalition of 3+ parties looking at the way things are predicted. If the PvdA and SP can bury differences then all well and good but the VVD would really like a cobbled together coalition with CDA forming a right leaning government.

As said above there are more pressing issues such as pension age and employment reform although I think that the VVD would sacrifice the wietpas for a bigger concession.

[Marco]

Well it is not simply a 2 horse race so there is no immediate result on the 13th sept but a lot of horse-trading after the event to form a coalition of 3+ parties looking at the way things are predicted. If the PvdA and SP can bury differences then all well and good but the VVD would really like a cobbled together coalition with CDA forming a right leaning government.

As said above there are more pressing issues such as pension age and employment reform although I think that the VVD would sacrifice the wietpas for a bigger concession.

Spot on. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the parties care enough about the wietpas to use it any coalition bargaining. Hopefully it just withers and dies on the vine.

[treetop]

Election: three polls say the VVD will win by very narrow margin
Tuesday 11 September 2012

On the last day of campaigning before the September 12 general election, three opinion polls say the right-wing VVD will win by a narrow majority.

The Netherlands goes to the polls on Wednesday to elect a new 150-seat lower house of parliament following the collapse of the outgoing coalition VVD-Christian Democrat coalition in April.

Polls by TNS Nipo and EenVandaag say the VVD will win 35 seats and the Labour party (PvdA) will take 34. For both parties, this represents four more seats they they currently have.

Further reinforcing the Liberal party's dominance, other research by Ipsos Synovate shows 44% of voters expect the VVD to win, while 27% say Labour will take most seats.

Socialists

The Socialist Party is tipped to be third with around 21 seats, six more than it has at present but well down on the early stages of the campaign. Geert Wilders' anti-immigration PVV will be in fourth place with around 17 seats, a loss of seven on its current total.

A Maurice de Hond poll on Tuesday evening puts both the VVD and PvdA on 36 seats. De Hond puts the SP in third place on 20 seats and PVV fourth with 18.

The number of floating voters has gone down, but one in five people still don't know who to vote for, the De Hond poll showed.

The last debate of the campaign takes place on tonight from 21.40 to 23.10 hours on Nederland 1 and internet channel Politiek 24.

What the papers say
Manifesto summaries (in English)


© DutchNews.nl

The possibility of a right leaning coalition looms but I still have hope that the 'stoner vote' will prevail as I just don't think stoners tend to participate in polls anyway. Could be a close thing. fingers crossed. x

[Cisco]

Some of you don't half talk shit

[Hazy Neville]

Some of you don't half talk shit

[DjShaggy]

Some of you don't half talk shit

Plus one

[Hazy Neville]

Looks like the status quo will win in the Netherlands..... in other words we're FUCKED

[TwoCanucks]

Realtime updates in english here: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... ns_upd.php

The Election: as it happens (updated all day)

Wednesday 12 September 2012

As the Netherlands goes to the polls to elect 150 MPs, keep up to date with the latest election news via DutchNews.nl.

20.05: An Nos correspondent says the fact we have had so many elections over the past few year has one positive effect - everyone knows the rules and no-one forgets their ID - except Arie Slob of course.

19.40: What the New York Times says about the Dutch election.

19.32: Where will Mark Rutte and Diederik Samsom be tonight? Rutte is at the Carlton Hotel in Scheveningen and Samsom will be at the Paradiso music venue in Amsterdam, says Nos's Dominique van der Heyde. Both will only emerge in public when the results are pretty definitive, she says - and that could take a long time.

18.45. With three hours to go, turnout is around 48%, slightly down on 2010, reports pollster Ipsos Synovate.

18.40: The Wadden Sea island of Schiermonnikoog has roped in its 'most athletic' civil servants to count the votes the minute the polls shut. Last election was pipped to the fastest count record by nearby Vlieland.

18.35: Nos reports long queues at railway station polling stations as commuters cast their votes on the way home.

18.30: The country's smallest polling station, the corner of a sitting room in a private house in the village of Marle, is set to break the record for the highest turnout - which currently stands at 124%.

So many people have flocked to the voting station out of curiosity that turnout is already 100%, and 10 the 46 locals still have to cast their votes, says the Volkskrant.

17.00: Local broadcaster RTV Utrecht says over 100 people were not allowed to vote at the city's train station because they did not have the right paperwork. A handful were so angry they tore up their voting card.

16.50: Does the Netherlands need a new voting system to stop the Italianisation of Dutch politics? asks Nos columnist Wilco Boom. He points out that the last time a Dutch cabinet lasted the full four years was back in 1994-98.

16.40: 840 Dutch nationals registered to vote in Australia, Nos television reports. Their votes are already being counted.

16.30: Turnout on the Wadden Sea island of Vlieland is already over 100% - thanks to holidaymakers.

15.45: The BBC has been talking to people in Maastricht about their problems with the euro.

15.20: Turnout is similar to two year ago, at around 27% so far, says the Volkskrant.

15.10: A Dutch student tells DutchNews.nl: 'I voted for Diederik Samsom. We need an intelligent man to run the country. He did not take eight years to graduate and he has a degree in nuclear physics.'

15.00: Last night's Nos debate was the best watched of all six televised debates, the public broadcaster calculates. In total, the debates attracted 7,620,000 viewers, equivalent to nearly half the population. So who watched all six?

14.45: Pieter Klein, deputy head of RTL news, says in a column he cannot wait to find out 'how much damage we voters have inflicted'. 'We don't need any more spin doctors, campaign leaders, strategist, one-lines and polls. We need tough debates with content.'

14.21: Nos television has a compilation of the main party leaders casting their own votes.

13.31: Turnout in Amsterdam is so far down slightly on June 2010 at around 14% but in The Hague it is up, at almost 20% so far.

13.30: Finance minister Jan Kees de Jager says people have been asking why he is not on the CDA candidates list. He's telling them to vote for Sybrand Buma. The real answer is he does not want to be an MP.

12.20: News agency ANP reports only 30 people have so far bothered to vote at the polling station on Noordwijk beach - despite the fine weather.

11.55: RTL news points out that unlike during other elections, party leaders are keeping up the pressure today as well. Mark Rutte, for example, has again laid into Geert Wilders on BNR radio.

11.50: Today is a historic day, says Geert Wilders on Twitter. 'It is the day we can show a fist to Brussels'.

11.31: Employers' leader Bernard Wientjes of the VNO-NCW has again called for the formation of a stable centre cabinet and says he is pleased that populism is on it way out.

11.30: Turnout is around 13%, reports Nos television, the same as in June 2010.

10.30: Kees van der Staaij, leader of the orthodox Christian party SGP was handing out cake in The Hague, because it is his birthday. His birthday wish? An extra seat in parliament for his party, which currently has two.

10.00: Arie Slob, leader of the smaller Christian party ChristenUnie used the microblogging service Twitter to tell the world he had forgotten to take ID to the polling station.

10.00: Google NL got in on the act, with an election-related doodle.

09.30: By 08.30, more than 500 people had voted at Leiden train station

[matty223]

i have the dutchnews but i really jsut want to know ablout the pass is it going to happen or not,
i guess i just ask HB, tomorrow

[Marco]

VVD 41
PvdA 40

[Marco]

Wilders down 11 seats!

[Marco]

VVD 41
PvdA 40
PVV 15
CDA 13
SP 15
D66 12
GL 4
CU 4
SGP 3
PvdD 2
50Plus 3

[Marco]

So PvdA + SP + D66 + GL = 71

[NedFlanders]

mmh, maybe a big coalition between vvd social, democrats + ?

i think it is difficult to say, what this result means for the wietpass. i think that it could take longer than january, that a new government is implemented.