“Vote D66 again” is stated on an election poster in front of the Gorinchem train station. The party used the slogan during the campaign for the municipal elections last March. For Gorinchem, these words appear to be almost prophetic. The residents of the fortified city have to go to the polls again on April 29.
The municipal council decided to hold new elections because there are suspicions of voting fraud. In a reconstruction of NRC it emerges that people have been put under pressure to issue a proxy and that votes are being recruited. While the Public Prosecution Service is still investigating, political parties will take to the streets again this weekend to campaign.
Ali Kokac of Democrats Gorinchem, just like Ilhan Tekir of D66, received a large number of preferential votes at polling stations where a striking number of proxies were used. Kokac will be campaigning in the city center of Gorinchem this Saturday. He wants NRC not on the record to speak. His fellow party member Kees van Willigen wants to say something. “The atmosphere that currently prevails due to the new elections is not the atmosphere I know from Gorinchem. It is all so sensitive.” Van Willigen has been a councilor for eight years, but says he has no knowledge of recruitment practices or other criminal offences.
Right next to Democrats Gorinchem are local VVD members with mandarins and an accordionist who plays Dutch songs. In addition to a new poster campaign with a nod to D66 (‘Choose VVD Gorinchem again on April 29’), a small plane is flying over Gorinchem today with advertising for the VVD. Party leader Niels van Santen says that he had to gather courage to start campaigning again. He hopes for a better result for his party, but fears a lower turnout because the elections fall in the middle of the May holidays.
Next to him is VVD councilor Attie Mager. Both hope that the events in Gorinchem will lead to the Electoral Act being scrutinized. “That system of powers of attorney needs to be adjusted,” says the councilor.
‘I never read anything about it in the newspaper’
It is getting busier in the shopping street on Saturday afternoon. Ice creams are handed out. Resident Evert Barreveld, who walks past the campaign violence, says that he recently heard from a local politician that the recruitment has been taking place for years. “I never read anything about it in the newspaper, so I find that strange.”
According to the reconstruction, the recruitment took place in NRC mainly among Gorinchem residents with a Turkish background. According to D66 member Van Willigen, the fuss is acting as a divisive factor in the community and there are many accusations on both sides. Last Friday, CDA mayor Melissant visited the Turkish mosque to talk about the unrest, writes regional broadcaster Rijnmond.
High visitors
The national parties participating in the municipal elections will receive extra support this weekend. A local party leader mentions it A.D even ‘a little cheating‘. CDA leader Henri Bontebal and VVD minister Thierry Aartsen came by on Friday. On Saturday it is the turn of SP leader Jimmy Dijk. SP members from various municipalities traveled with him. One of them is Emin Basoglu. He is the leader of the SP in Rotterdam. In the conversations he has today, he does not hear much about the alleged voting fraud, but he notices that not everyone seems to be aware of the new elections. “I have already voted,” they say.
Around April 15, the residents of Gorinchem received their voting cards for the new municipal elections of April 29. The mayor of Gorinchem sent a letter along with the voting cards. In it she calls for people to vote again. Proxies are allowed, although she also writes: “We prefer that you vote yourself.”
