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.

Recent situation

Elections were held on January 22, 2003 after the resignation of the first Balkenende cabinet. The campaign became a contest between between CDA and PvdA to become the largest party. The PvdA's lijsttrekker, Wouter Bos, declared that he would not become Prime Minister if his party won: the party's candidate was not announced until a few days before the election - Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, who did not take part in the campaign. The negotiations following the election were lengthy and resulted in a coalition of CDA, VVD and D66 and the second Balkenende cabinet.

Related Topics:
January 22 - 2003 - First Balkenende cabinet - Wouter Bos - Job Cohen - Mayor - Amsterdam - Second Balkenende cabinet

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The allocation of the 150 seats, with the number of votes in parentheses, was:

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The other parties contesting the elections were: Partij voor de Dieren (47,754), Leefbaar Nederland (38,894), Partij van de Toekomst (13,845), LijstRatelband.nl (9,045), Duurzaam Nederland (7,271), Nieuwe Communistische Partij (4,854), de Conservatieven.nl (2,521), Vooruitstrevende Integratie Partij (1,623), Alliantie voor Vernieuwing en Democratie (990) and Lijst Veldhoen (296). All of these parties lost their deposit, except for LN which as a sitting party didn't have to pay it.

Related Topics:
Partij voor de Dieren - Leefbaar Nederland - Partij van de Toekomst - LijstRatelband.nl - Duurzaam Nederland - Nieuwe Communistische Partij - De Conservatieven.nl - Vooruitstrevende Integratie Partij - Alliantie voor Vernieuwing en Democratie - Lijst Veldhoen

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The total votes cast was 9,654,475, giving a threshold required for a seat of 64,363.167. GL and SP combined their lists for the calculations, as did CU and SGP. The two candidates obtaining seats only because of preference votes were H.P.A. Nawijn (LPF) (21,209) and J.C. Huizinga-Heringa (CU) (19,650).

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The Socialistische Partij lost one seat in February 2004 when it expelled Ali Lazrak from its faction. Lazrak decided to continue as a one-man faction.

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In August 2004 the entire LPF faction resigned from their party, due to internal politics within the party. They remained as an independent faction, continuing to use the name LPF.

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On the 2nd of september 2004 the VVD also lost a seat when Geert Wilders left the faction. He too decided to continue as a one-man faction.

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