{"id":5980,"date":"2019-03-25T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5980"},"modified":"2019-03-25T02:24:06","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T02:24:06","slug":"big-surprises-in-the-dutch-provinciale-statenverkiezingen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/big-surprises-in-the-dutch-provinciale-statenverkiezingen\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Surprises In The Dutch Provinciale Statenverkiezingen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, thousands of stemgerechtigden\u00a0<\/em>(voters) flocked to the hundreds of\u00a0stemlokalen\u00a0<\/em>(polling stations) all over the country to cast their\u00a0stem\u00a0<\/em>(vote). Or, perhaps, the plural stemmen <\/em>is more apt, as the Dutch actually had two\u00a0verkiezingen <\/em>(elections)! One vote for the waterschapsverkiezingen<\/a> <\/em>(water board elections) and the other for the\u00a0Provinciale Statenverkiezingen<\/em><\/a> (Provincial States elections). Today, the official results will be published. What do these elections mean for the Netherlands? And who won? Who lost? Let’s find out.<\/p>\n

What were the elections about?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Verkiezingsposters<\/em> (election posters) of parties that participated in Maastricht (Image by author)<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0waterschapsverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>decide who is going to lead the waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>in the coming four years. The waterschappen <\/em>are responsible for water management, which of course is a big deal in the Netherlands<\/a>. And while this seems quite simple – to just make sure that our feet stay dry – there is more to it than you may think. A high water level allows nature to thrive, whereas a low water level helps boeren\u00a0<\/em>(farmers). The waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>are also involved in the\u00a0energietransitie\u00a0<\/em>(energy transition), as they own land that can be used to install\u00a0windmolens\u00a0<\/em>(wind turbines) and\u00a0zonnepanelen\u00a0<\/em>(solar panels). Money can be invested in more such solutions, or the budget can be cut to save the\u00a0belastingbetaler\u00a0<\/em>(taxpayer) a few bucks. These are important political choices!<\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0waterschapsverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>have never gained as much attention as the Provinciale Statenverkiezingen<\/em>, as the latter indirectly determine the\u00a0verdeling\u00a0<\/em>(distribution) of\u00a0zetels\u00a0<\/em>(seats) in the Eerste Kamer<\/em> (“First Chamber”, the Senate, or upper house, of the Dutch parliament<\/a>). In fact, the reason that the\u00a0waterschapsverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>are held together with the\u00a0Provinciale Statenverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>is to generate a higher opkomst<\/em> (turnout) for the waterschapsverkiezingen.<\/em> Why do those elections suffer from a lower opkomst<\/em>? Well, it may be that people are less interested in the waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>or simply do not know much about them. After all, direct voting of the representatives of the\u00a0waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>at a national level has only existed since 2008. But the strategy to hold the\u00a0verkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>simultaneously seems to be working: The opkomst<\/em> for the waterschapsverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>grew from 43.5 in 2015 to 50.5 percent this time around. The\u00a0Provinciale Statenverkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>also saw a bump from 46 to 56 percent this year.<\/p>\n

Just like in the gemeenteraadsverkiezingen<\/em><\/a>, there are\u00a0lokale partijen\u00a0<\/em>(local parties) and landelijke partijen<\/em> (national parties) that participated in both verkiezingen\u00a0<\/em>held on March 20. There are different parties for the\u00a0waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0Provinciale Staten<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Confusing borders<\/h2>\n
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The 21 waterschappen<\/em> and the 12 provincies <\/em>of the Netherlands. Their territories do not always line up with each other. The thin white lines in the left map show the provincial borders (Image composed by author from images by Janwillemvanaalst at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 4.0).<\/p><\/div>\n

Wednesday’s elections were held in each of the 12 provincies\u00a0<\/em>and in each of the 21\u00a0waterschappen\u00a0<\/em>of the country. Every gemeente <\/em>(municipality) set up stembureaus <\/em>(polling stations) throughout the gemeente<\/em>. The default stembureau <\/em>is the one closest to your huisadres <\/em>(home address), but you can vote in any of the stembureaus <\/em>in the gemeente<\/em>. That can be quite handig <\/em>(handy) – but this can also cause problems. While the grenzen <\/em>(borders) of gemeenten <\/em>and provinces <\/em>line up nicely, the waterschappen <\/em>have differently drawn territories. This meant that some gemeenten <\/em>held elections for multiple waterschappen<\/em>! However, your vote only counts for the waterschap <\/em>in which your home is. So if you voted in a stembureau <\/em>outside of your waterschap<\/em>, your stem <\/em>was ongeldig<\/em>!<\/a> Luckily, this was quite an unlikely scenario.<\/p>\n

So… Who won?<\/strong><\/h2>\n