News item | 16-01-2024 | 13:29
At the moment in the Netherlands we always vote for a specific candidate from a party in elections. The One Vote More Choice bill provides an additional option.
The voter can then either vote for a specific candidate or cast a vote for the entire list of candidates of a party. In the latter case, the voter does not choose a specific candidate from that party. The adjustment of the new system ensures that candidates who receive many ‘candidate votes’ in an election will in most cases be elected more quickly than is currently the case. With this, the government wants to strengthen the bond between the voter and the elected representative. Following earlier advice from the Council of State, the bill has been amended and Minister De Jonge of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) is putting the proposal out for consultation for a second time.
In the current electoral system, generally few candidates who were not already elected because of their position on the list manage to obtain a preferential seat in practice. One candidate succeeded in the 2023 House of Representatives election. Three candidates succeeded in this in the 2021 House of Representatives election. The rest of the candidates were elected because of their position on the list. The bill only changes the distribution of seats within parties. The distribution of seats between parties does not change.
Minister De Jonge: “By voting, you determine together with all other voters who will be the representatives who will form the parliament in the coming period. Some voters want to support a particular party with their vote. Others want to vote for a specific candidate, for example someone from their own region or who has a lot of knowledge of a certain subject. With the bill we strengthen the influence of the candidate vote. The position on the list becomes less decisive, the number of votes that candidates receive becomes more important. In this way we want to contribute to voters feeling better represented by the chosen candidates.”
Preference threshold
Both the State Committee on the Parliamentary System, the Remkes Committee, and the Citizens’ Forum on the Electoral System recommended introducing the new electoral system. The cabinet has accepted this advice. After approval by both Houses, the new electoral system will apply to all direct elections, i.e. for the House of Representatives, provincial councils, water boards, municipal councils and the European Parliament. Partly in response to critical advice from the Council of State, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations commissioned research into the consequences of the introduction of this new electoral system on the various elections. Based on that research, it was decided to supplement the bill with a limited preference threshold for the allocation of candidate seats. This means that candidates must first meet a certain threshold to be eligible for a candidate seat.
Other parts of the bill
The bill also contains three other components that arise from the advice of the State Committee on the Parliamentary System: the number of declarations of support that new parties must collect in order to participate in the election will be increased. This better ensures that new parties have some support. The guarantees that apply to new parties that participate in elections will also be adjusted upwards, in order to prevent frivolous participation in the elections. Finally, parties only have to submit one list of candidates per party per election, instead of one per electoral district, which reduces the administrative burden for political parties.
Consultation
Because the bill has been amended and supplemented on several points, and this proposal is a major change to our electoral system, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations has chosen to re-open the bill for consultation and then ask the Council of State for advice. The consultation will start from January 16, 2024 and anyone who wants to can respond via this link until March 18, 2024.
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