Provincial elections were held in the
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
on 15 March 2023, on the same day as the
water board elections, as well as
island council elections in the
Caribbean Netherlands
The Caribbean Netherlands (, ) is a geographic region of the Netherlands located outside of Europe, in the Caribbean, consisting of three special municipalities. These are the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (island), Saba,"Bonair ...
.
The elections resulted in sweeping victory for the
Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), which had been formed three years earlier; it won the national popular vote, and alone won the most seats in nine of the twelve provinces. (It tied for most seats with the
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...
in
North Holland
North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...
and in
South Holland
South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
, and with
GroenLinks
(, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands.
It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...
in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
.)
This is the first time in Dutch history that a political party won the popular vote in all twelve provinces.
These elections also
indirectly determined the composition of the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, for the members of the twelve provincial states, alongside
electoral colleges
An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliamenta ...
elected
on the same day, elected the Senate's 75 members in the
Senate election on 30 May, two months after the provincial elections.
Electoral system
Elections for the
provincial councils of the twelve
provinces of the Netherlands
There are twelve provinces ( or ; Grammatical number#Overview, sing. ) of the Netherlands representing the administrative layer between the cabinet of the Netherlands, national government and the municipalities of the Netherlands, local ...
are held every four years in March using the
D'Hondt method
The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...
. Voters also have the option to cast a preferential vote. The seats won by a list are first allocated to the candidates who, in preferential votes, have received at least 25% of the number of votes needed for one seat, regardless of their placement on the electoral list. If multiple candidates from a list pass this threshold, their ordering is determined based on the number of votes received. Any remaining seats are allocated to candidates according to their placement on the electoral list. The size of the provincial councils ranges from 39 members for a province with fewer than 400,000 inhabitants to 55 members for a province with more than 2,000,000 inhabitants. As of 2023 there are a total of 572 seats in the provincial councils.
Participating parties
As of 21 December 2022, 49 parties have been registered with the Electoral Council for participation in general elections, a registration that carries over to provincial elections. A party can also participate in a province by registering its party name in that province instead of nationally.
Which parties participate differs per province, with most large parties represented in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
participating in all provinces, and some local and smaller national parties also participating.
Opinion polling
Seats summary
''A “-” in the table means that the party in question has not submitted a list of candidates for the 2023 election in that province.''
Detailed results
National
By Province
Drenthe
Flevoland
Friesland
Gelderland
Groningen
Limburg
North Brabant
North Holland
Overijssel
South Holland
Utrecht
Zeeland
References
{{Dutch elections
Provincial
Provincial elections in the Netherlands