European Parliament election, 2014 (Netherlands)

Active voting right

In order to cast a vote (have the right to vote) in elections for the European Parliament. The voter should:

Non-Dutch citizens who are nationals of other Member States of the European Union may vote at the election of the European Parliament, provided that:

Dutch nationals abroad had to register to vote for the elections to the European Parliament. Upon registration request, they had to indicate whether they are voting by letter, by proxy or in person at a polling station in the Netherlands Dutch nationals living in another Member State were to make a statement that they did not vote in the Member State they reside.

Dutch residents of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were just like Dutch living abroad allowed to register to vote. Dutch residents on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba did not need to register, because these islands are part of the Netherlands. They could, as in other Dutch municipalities, vote at their polling stations.

The number of granted requests for registration in 2014 was 23.799. Down from 39.601 in 2009. Of these, registered voters, 21.017 indicated they wanted to vote by mail, 1.804 requested to vote in the Netherlands itself at a polling station, and 978 wanted to grant a power of attorney to someone in the Netherlands.

Passive voting right

To stand for election (right to be elected),

Non-Dutch candidates from other Member States of the European Union must in addition, be an actual resident in the Netherlands and not excluded from the right to be elected in the Member State of which they are nationals.

Organization of elections

In elections for the European Parliament's, the national electoral districts play no role in the nomination. The Netherlands consist out of a single electoral district. Political parties therefore take part in the elections with only a single candidate list.

Aldo the national electoral districts play an important role in processing the election results. The principal polling station of each constituency determinants the vote total of the constituency. These are recorded in minutes and were transferred to the Electoral Council. The Electoral Council as the central electoral committee then determines the result of the Netherlands and the distribution of seats.

The transfer of the records to the Electoral Council took place in 18 constituencies on monday, May 26th 2014. On Tuesday, May 27th this happened for the two remaining constituencies where the municipalities Raalte, Kampen (constituency Zwolle) and Ouder-Amstel (constituency Haarlem) experimented with central counting of votes.

Casting a vote

A voter could cast his vote at a polling station of choice within his own congregation. At the casting his vote, he could identify himself with an identity document up to five year expired.

Voters who voted in the election for the European Parliament in 2014 from outside Netherlands experimenting with a new model ballot. Parties were allowed to show the party logo above their candidates if they had registered it in advance with the Electoral Council.

Participation political groups

On Monday, April 14 2014, the Electoral Council had a public hearing on the validity of the lists of candidates for the election of the Dutch seats for the European Parliament. The candidate list of the "Women's Party" was declared invalid because the required deposit to participate (€ 11,250,-) was not paid. Further, the following candidates of the Party for the Animals were deleted, because their documentation was incomplete and as such could not compete in the election:

Numbering of the candidates List

In the same public hearing on April 14 2014, the Electoral Council also numbered lists of candidates. the parties who had obtained one or more seats in 2009 at the last election to the European Parliament, given a number based on the number of votes that the parties had achieved at that time. These were 8 candidate lists. The party with the most votes got number 1 and so on. The list numbers for the remaining 11 candidate lists was decided by a draw.

The official order and names of candidate lists:

1. CDA - European People's Party
2. PVV (Party for Freedom)
3. P.v.d.A./European Social Democrats
4. VVD
5. Democrats 66 (D66) - ALDE
6. GREENLEFT
7. SP (Socialist Party)
8. Christian Union-SGP
9. Article 50
10. IQ, the Rights-Obligations-Party
11. Pirate Party
12. 50PLUS
13. The Greens
14. Anti EU(ro) Party
15. Liberal Democratic Party
16. JESUS LIVES
17. ichooseforhonest.eu
18. Party for the Animals
19. Focus and Simplicity

Common lists

The ChristianUnion and SGP formed a common list ChristenUnie-SGP for the European Parliament election

Electoral alliances

Several parties formed an electoral alliance

1. CDA/European People's Party and ChristenUnie-SGP
2. PvdA/European Social-Democrats and GreenLeft

Treaty of Lisbon

According to the Treaty of Lisbon, the Netherlands gets 26 seats in the European parliament. One more then the election in 2011. The last elections were held with the treaty not yet in effect, because not all member states had ratified it. When the treaty came into effect during the last period of the European Parliament. The additional seat was then awarded to the PVV (Partij voor de Vrijheid) on 9 October 2009. Increasing the numbers of seats for the PVV from 4 to 5 for the 2009-2014 session.

Polls

Poll results are listed in the tables below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first. The highest figure in each survey is displayed in bold, and the background shaded in the leading party's colour. In the instance that there is a tie, then no figure is shaded.

Turnout

Turnout was with 37.32% a little higher than in 2009 . (36.90%) A total of 12,815,496 people were entitled to vote. Of these 4,782,251 did so.

Highest turnout in municipality:

1. Schiermonnikoog: 70.95%

Lowest turnout in municipality:

1. Sint Eustatius: 7.44%

Electoral quota

The electoral quota is the amount of votes needed for one seat. It's total valid vote divided by the number of seats.
For this election it was 4.753.746 valid votes, divided by 26 seats.
The electoral quota was established as: 182.836

Electoral alliances

The results of the electoral alliances. Both parties of both alliances reached the electoral quota and are eligible for remainder seats.

Assigning full seats

Full seats are assigned by number of votes divided by the electoral quota. Electoral alliances are marked as a letter, instead of a number. Any seats left over are remainder seats.

Remainder seats

The remaining seats are awarded sequentially to the lists with the highest average number of votes per seat. Only lists that reached the electoral quota are eligible.

The election committee also calculated what would have happened without electoral alliances. In that case the CDA - European People's Party would have 4 seats instead of 5 and the Socialist Party 3 seats instead of 2.

Awarding seats within electoral alliances

To decide the seats per party for electoral alliances, they first decide the combination quota. Combination quota for electoral alliances are decided by total number valid votes divided by awarded seats. The party with most votes left after the full seats are assigned gets the remainder seat.

List A
For list A this is 1,086,609 votes divided by 7 seats. The combination quota is established as: 155,229 votes

List B
For list B this is 778,357 votes divided by 5 seats. The combination quota is established as: 155,671 votes

Summary:

Final results

The Christian Democratic Appeal got the most seats and was seen as the winner of the 2014 elections, aldo it lost the biggest percentage of votes and Democrats 66 getting more votes. The Christian Democratic Appeal were helped to an extra seat, thanks to their electoral alliance with Christian Union-SGP. The euro-sceptic PVV (Party for Freedom) was the biggest loser of the elections, aldo it only lost 1 seat. Contrary to other European countries, the euro-sceptic movement did worse as previous elections.

European groups

Summary:

Elected Members

23 members were directly elected by preference votes, aldo 28 members got enough preference votes.
To be elected by preference votes, you need 10% of the electoral quota
The electoral quota was 182,836. 10% of 182,836 = 18,284 votes
Not all could be appointed because either the party did not get enough seats or they got no seats.

Below are all the elected members of European parliament for the Netherlands. Members elected by preference votes are in bold. The following 26 MEPs were officially announced by the Central Electoral Commission.

Democrats 66 (D66) - ALDE

1. Sophie in 't Veld, by 568,185 votes (top candidate)
2. Marietje Schaake, by 41,236 votes
3. Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, by 31,326 votes
4. Matthijs van Miltenburg, by 16,698 votes

CDA - European People's Party

1. Esther de Lange, by 415,011 votes (top candidate)
2. Annie Schreijer-Pierik, by 113,123 votes
3. Wim van de Camp, by 37,715 votes
4. Jeroen Lenaers, by 36,428 votes
5. Lambert van Nistelrooij, by 32,970 votes

PVV (Party for Freedom)

1. Geert Wilders, by 290,239 votes (did not accept his seat)
2. Marcel de Graaff, by 276,680 votes (top candidate)
3. Vicky Maeijer, by 26,491 votes
4. Olaf Stuger, by 4.021 votes

VVD

1. Hans van Baalen, by 358,029 votes (top candidate)
2. Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, by 86,237 votes
3. Jan Huitema, by 26,031 votes

SP (Socialist Party)

1. Dennis de Jong, by 300,782 votes (top candidate)
2. Anne-Marie Mineur, by 52,187 votes

P.v.d.A./European Social Democrats

1. Paul Tang, by 183,296 votes (top candidate)
2. Agnes Jongerius, by 170,119 votes
3. Kati Piri, by 10,351 votes

Christian Union-SGP

1. Peter van Dalen, by 253,620 votes (top candidate)
2. Bas Belder, by 53,995 votes

GREENLEFT

1. Bas Eickhout, by 184,154 votes (top candidate)
2. Judith Sargentini, by 91,745 votes

Party for the Animals

1. Anja Hazekamp, by 131,093 votes (top candidate)

Members not elected, but enough preference votes:

MEPs in 2014-2019

Below is a list of members of the European Parliament for the period 2014-2019 as a result of this election.

Mutations: Including the reason why this list differs from the people who got directly elected: