The PvdA is again dominant in Amsterdam, but not as dominant as it used to be. That is the conclusion that imposes itself when looking at the results of the municipal elections per district and by polling stationwhich were published Tuesday by the municipal research agency OIS.
While GroenLinks was the largest in three quarters of the neighborhoods in 2018, this now only applies to part of East and West. The PvdA is now back in the lead in the city centre, North and large parts of Nieuw-West and Southeast. Yet the electoral map of the city is not completely red. Amsterdam has become fragmented. This is also reflected in the small difference in seats between the three largest parties: PvdA 9, GroenLinks 8, D66 7.
Zuid and the southern canal belt are in the hands of VVD and D66, just like in 2018. The new urban area of Weesp is also a real VVD stronghold: the liberals won in all districts except one. The gain in Weesp could not prevent the VVD from losing a seat in the city council, from 6 to 5.
The electoral map of Amsterdam also clearly shows the rise of BIJ1, from 1 to 3 seats. While the party was not the largest in any district in 2018, Bij1 is now the largest in countless polling stations, especially in Southeast. The decline of Denk (3 to 2 seats) is also visible: the party conquered almost all of New West in 2018, but now it has to give up many neighborhoods there to the PvdA and, to a lesser extent, GroenLinks.
Turnout: 9.1 percent
At 46.6 percent, turnout in Amsterdam was the lowest ever in municipal elections. At the neighborhood level, Zuidoost, Noord and parts of Nieuw-West stand out in a negative way: in the Osdorp-Midden district only 18 percent of those entitled to vote turned up, at the polling station in De Nieuwe Stad Church Center in the Bijlmer it was a sad 9 1 percent. In Southeast in particular, voters seem to have completely dropped out.
from a exit poll of the University of Amsterdam and OIS among four hundred voters with a migration background it appears that BIJ1 is the largest party among voters of Surinamese descent: 35 percent of them voted for the party. Among Turkish Amsterdammers, Denk was by far the largest: 61 percent of these voters voted for the party. Just over half of the Moroccan-Amsterdam voters opted for Denk.
Also read: After the dethronement, the PvdA in the capital is now the most powerful again
It seems that CDA party leader Diederik Boomsma owes the retention of his seat to Weesp, as he had hoped beforehand: in the new urban area, sometimes as much as 15 percent of voters voted for the CDA – six times as much as the Amsterdam average. 2.5 percent. In the adjacent Driemond, JA21 (2 seats on the council) is remarkably popular. Betondorp is a bright spot for the losing SP (from 3 to 2 seats), where 12.6 percent of the voters voted for the socialists.
Preferred votes
The preferential votes were also announced last Monday. Amsterdam voters are not very sensitive to personal campaigns: not a single candidate in an ineligible position was elected to the council with preferential votes.
What is also striking: there was indeed a ‘Moorman effect’. No fewer than 42,778 Amsterdammers voted for PvdA party leader Marjolein Moorman, by far the most votes for a candidate. For comparison: the number two of the PvdA, party leader Sofyan Mbarki, received 1,526 votes. After Moorman, VVD party leader Claire Martens received the most preference votes: 25,012.
The Amsterdam voter has a preference for female candidates. At GroenLinks, the number two on the list, Imane Nadif, got more votes than party leader Rutger Groot Wassink. This also happened with Think. At BIJ1, even the number two and three, both women, surpassed party leader Jazie Veldhuyzen.
None of the well-known and semi-famous Amsterdammers on the electoral lists had any success. Former lingerie entrepreneur Rob Heilbron, party leader for the BVNL party of Member of Parliament Wybren van Haga, obtained 802 votes. Former ‘laughing gas king’ Deniz Üresin, leader of the De Feestpartij, got stuck at 317. And actor George van Houts, nowadays mainly known as a conspiracy theorist, had to make do with 35 votes.