Tweede Kamer

The Tweede Kamer is the second chamber or lower house of the Staten-Generaal, the parliament in the Netherlands. It has 150 seats which are filled through elections using a party-list proportional representation system. The seat of the Tweede Kamer is located in The Hague.

Elections

The maximum duration of the Tweede Kamer is four years. Anybody eligible to vote in the Netherlands also has the right to establish a political party and contest elections for the Tweede Kamer (see political parties of the Netherlands). Elections are called when the government has lost the parliament's confidence, the government coalition has broken down, the sitting period of the Kamer expired or when no governing coalition can be formed. The parties wanting to take part must register 43 days before the elections, supplying a list of at least 30 candidates. Parties that do not have any sitting candidates in the chamber must also pay a deposit (11,250 euro for the January 2003 elections) and provide 30 signatures of support from residents of each of the 19 electoral districts in which they want to collect votes. The candidate lists are placed in the hands of the voters at least 14 days before the election. Each candidate list is numbered, with the person in the first position known as the lijsttrekker (key member). The lijsttrekker is usually appointed by the party to lead its election campaign. The lijsttrekker of the party receiving the most seats will often become the Prime Minister.

Related Topics:
Political party - Political parties of the Netherlands - Prime Minister

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Most citizens and residents of the Netherlands aged 18 or over can vote. A single vote can be placed on any of the candidates. Many voters select one of the lijsttrekkers (Balkenende received 2,393,802 of the CDA's 2,763,480 votes in the January 2003 elections), but alternatively can place a preference vote for a candidate lower on the list.

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Once the election results are known, the seats are allocated to the parties. The number of valid national votes cast is divided by 150, the number of seats available, to give a threshold for each seat. Each party's number of votes is divided by this threshold to give an initial number of seats. Any party that received fewer votes than the threshold (i.e., less than one in 150 of the total votes cast) fails to gain representation in the Kamer. Any party that received more than 75% of the threshold will have its deposit refunded. After the initial seats are allocated, the allocation of the remainder seats will follow one of two methods. If the number of remainder seats is greater than 19, a method of greatest averages is used, otherwise a method of greatest surplusses. Parties can agree between themselves to combine their lists (apparently this affects only the allocation of remainder seats.)

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Once the number of seats allocated to each party is known, in general they are allocated to candidates in the order that they appear on the party's list. (Hence, before the elections, the candidates near the top may be described as in an electable position, depending on the number of seats that the party is likely to obtain.) If a candidate can not take up the position in parliament (e.g., if they become a minister, decide not to enter parliament, or later resign) then the next candidate on the list takes their place. However at this state the preference votes are also taken into account. If a candidate receives more than one quarter of the threshold then they are considered elected in their own right, jumping over candidates who where placed higher on the list. In the January 2003 elections two candidates received seats exclusively through preference votes.

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