The Netherlands Goes To Polls On June 13

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27987, 6 June 1956, Page 13

The Netherlands Goes To Polls On June 13

[By a Special Reuter Correspondent] (Rec. 8 p.m.) THE HAGUE, June 5.

Some 6,100,000 Dutch men and women will go to the polls on June 13 in Holland’s fourth post-war general election td choose a new Lower House of Parliament.

It will be the first General Election since 1952, when the present Lower House, or Second Chamber as it is called, was returned. Elections are held every four years under the Dutch Constitution.

The day after the General Election, a new Upper House, or First Chamber will be chosen, but not by a direct electoral vote. The Chamber’s 50 members are elected from among their own members by the Provincial States (Parliaments), meeting in special session. The voters in the General Election will have 10 parties from which to choose, three less than at the last election in 1952. Of the 10\ seven are denominational parties, proving the important role which the Roman Catholic and Protestant religions still play in Dutch political life.

But the election struggle can be narrowed down to five main parties: the Catholic People’s Party, Labour, two Right-wing Protestant groupings, the Anti-Revolutionaries, and the Christian Historicals. and the Freedom and Democracy Party (Liberal). At present, the Catholic People’s Party and Labour both have 30 seats in the Lower House and form a broad coalition with the Anti-Revolutionaries (12 seats) and the Christian Historicals (nine seats).

The Liberals. Communists, and the other Protestant party, known as the Political Reformed, are in the opposition with nine, six, and two seats respectively. Finally, the two remaining seats are held by a former Right-wing Roman Catholic splinter party which recent!} merged with the Catholic People’s Party. The main battle of the forthcoming elections, and the real point of interest

in an otherwise quiet campaign, will be the struggle between Labour and Catholics to become the country’s biggest party.

Labour polled slightly more votes than the Catholic People’s Party in 1952—the first time in Holland’s history that this had happened. No landslide either way can be-expected, however. for the Dutch are so set in their political way of life that the difference between these two parties is likely to be settled by one or two seats.

On June 13. the electorate will actually vote for 100 new members of the Lower House, although in fact they will be choosing 50 more because Parliament recently decided to increase the Second Chamber’s membership to 150 and the Upper House to 75.

The 50 new members, however, cannot take their' seats in the Lower House until the new Parliament has approved in second reading the Constitution revisions necessary to increase its membership. Once this has been done the new members will be chosen in proportion to the election results, which in conseouence should not be greatly altered. The situation in the Upper House is still morf complicated. The Provincial States will return a new 50-member chamber on June 14 whose main task will be to approve the revision of the Constitution. It will then be dissolved and the Provincial States will vote again, this time to elect the new and permanent 75-member House.

Both Houses are being expanded because pf the extra duties which member* of Parliament have to undertake, and particularly in view of the everincreasing number of international meetings which they have to attend. Obligation to Vote

Every person over the of 23 is obliged by law to vote. The pono’tv for not voting is a fine of l(*s Provided that ho has not had the ri«h* to vote suspended for a criminal offence. t. Candidates have to be at least 30, of

Dutch nationality, and they cannot have had their voting right suspended. Public drunkenness can be one reason for suspension—a regulation which proved its worth in 1917 when the so-called “Rabble Party” put up a notorious drunkard in protest against the compulsory vote. Several changes have been made in the voting procedure for the coming election.

Booths will stay open until 7 p.m., two hours longer than usual, because it has been officially estimated that voting during working hours cost the country a production loss of between £1.000.000 and £1.400.000.

For the first time. too. ballot papers will contain the names of the parties instead of just the number allotted to them by the Central Voting Bureau. Formerly a voter who had forgotten the number given to his party could not get any information once inside the polling booth. The ballot papers contain lists of every party and its candidates. Beside each name is a small white circle in a black square. All the voter has to do is to fill in one of the white circles with a red pencil. At the head of each list stands each party’s main, candidate. The present Dutch Prime Minister. Dr. Willem Drees. affectionately nicknamed “Papa.’’ has been chosen to lead the Labour list this year, as in 1952. The election results are calculated in accordance with a complicated system of proportional representation. The minimum number of votes necessary to win a seat is reached b v dividing the tn«al number of valid votes cast by 100 (the number of seats). Any votes over the minimum required go to the next candidate on the list.