1994 Dutch general election

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 3 May 1994. The Labour Party emerged as the largest party, winning 37 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives. The election resulted in significant losses for both the Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Appeal. The two liberal parties, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and Democrats 66 made large gains, whilst two pro-elderly parties and the Socialist Party all passed the electoral threshold to win seats.

1994 Dutch general election

3 May 1994
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	78.8% ( 1.5 pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– PvdA Wim Kok 24.0% 37 −12 CDA Elco Brinkman 22.2% 34 −20 VVD Frits Bolkestein 20.0% 31 +9 D66 Hans van Mierlo 15.5% 24 +12 AOV Jet Nijpels 3.6% 6 New GL Ina Brouwer • Mohamed Rabbae 3.5% 5 −1 CD Hans Janmaat 2.5% 3 +2 RPF Leen van Dijke 1.8% 3 +2 SGP Bas van der Vlies 1.7% 2 −1 GPV Gert Schutte 1.3% 2 0 SP Jan Marijnissen 1.3% 2 +2 U55+ Bertus Leerkes 0.9% 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Most voted-for party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after Third Lubbers cabinet CDA–PvdA First Kok cabinet PvdA–VVD–D66

The formation of a government coalition was arduous but after four months the First Kok cabinet was formed. It was an unprecedented coalition of the two liberal parties and Labour. The CDA was consigned to opposition for the first time in its history. It was also the first government since 1918 not to include a Christian Democratic party.

Background

Before the 1994 general election opinion polls predicted that the Centre Democrats party could win more than five seats in the House of Representatives. However, media reports claiming that some newly elected local members had extremist pasts damaged the Centre Democrats' prospects. A secret recording broadcast on national television one week before the election showed an Amsterdam council member bragging about having set immigrant centers on fire in the early 1980s. In the election that followed, the Centre Democrats won 2.5% of the vote and three seats in the House of Representatives (Janmaat was joined by Wil Schuurman and Cor Zonneveld), well below earlier expectations. Janmaat claimed that the relatively poor result was a result of an anti-CD campaign in the media. Due to its growth, and questions arising amongst the other parties over the development of a multicultural society, political opponents began to confront the Centre Democrats directly rather than maintain a strict cordon sanitaire around it.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Party	2,153,135	23.97	37	–12
	Christian Democratic Appeal	1,996,418	22.23	34	–20
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,792,401	19.96	31	+9
	Democrats 66	1,391,202	15.49	24	+12
	General Elderly Alliance	326,401	3.63	6	New
	GroenLinks	311,399	3.47	5	–1
	Centre Democrats	220,734	2.46	3	+2
	Reformatory Political Federation	158,705	1.77	3	+2
	Reformed Political Party	155,251	1.73	2	–1
	Reformed Political League	119,158	1.33	2	0
	Socialist Party	118,768	1.32	2	+2
	Union 55+	78,147	0.87	1	New
	Centre Party '86	32,327	0.36	0	New
	Natural Law Party	27,665	0.31	0	New
	Free Indian Party	17,230	0.19	0	New
	The Greens	13,902	0.15	0	0
	New Communist Party of the Netherlands	11,630	0.13	0	New
	Solidarity Farmers' Party	9,096	0.10	0	New
	Party for Environment and Justice	8,716	0.10	0	New
	Solidarity '93	7,919	0.09	0	New
	Pacifist Socialist Party '92	7,385	0.08	0	New
	New Party	6,825	0.08	0	New
	General Democratic Party	5,196	0.06	0	New
	Patriotic Democratic Appeal	4,845	0.05	0	New
	Socialist Alternative Politics	4,347	0.05	0	0
	Libertarian Party	2,754	0.03	0	New
Total		8,981,556	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		8,981,556	99.56
Invalid/blank votes		39,727	0.44
Total votes		9,021,283	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		11,455,924	78.75
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province

Province	PvdA	CDA	VVD	D66	AOV	GL	CD	RPF	SGP	GPV	SP	U55+	Others
Drenthe	34.5	19.8	18.2	13.9	2.1	2.5	1.2	1.7	0.2	2.4	1.0	0.6	1.8
Flevoland	20.1	17.6	23.6	17.0	4.2	3.1	2.4	2.8	2.4	2.1	1.3	1.0	2.4
Friesland	31.6	27.5	14.2	12.5	2.2	3.0	1.1	2.6	0.6	2.2	0.6	0.4	1.9
Gelderland	23.8	24.7	18.3	15.3	2.8	3.3	1.8	2.7	3.2	1.1	1.0	0.6	1.7
Groningen	34.8	17.3	14.2	14.1	2.8	4.5	1.3	1.8	0.2	4.5	1.7	0.6	1.3
Limburg	24.5	28.9	14.8	14.5	5.4	3.2	3.0	0.2	0.1	0.4	2.2	1.0	1.4
North Brabant	21.0	27.1	18.1	16.3	5.7	2.8	2.8	0.5	0.5	0.4	2.2	1.0	2.8
North Holland	24.9	16.2	24.5	17.2	4.1	4.9	2.3	0.9	0.3	0.6	0.9	1.0	1.6
Overijssel	24.2	29.6	15.4	12.9	2.1	2.5	1.5	3.2	2.1	2.9	0.8	1.2	1.6
South Holland	22.2	18.3	23.4	15.8	3.2	3.1	3.5	2.1	3.0	1.2	1.5	0.8	1.8
Utrecht	19.1	20.6	23.2	16.9	2.9	4.7	2.4	2.5	2.3	2.0	0.9	0.8	1.5
Zeeland	22.4	20.9	18.8	13.5	3.7	2.4	2.8	3.0	7.9	1.8	0.6	0.9	2.2

Further reading

• Irwin, Galen A. "The Dutch Parliamentary Election of 1994," Electoral Studies (1995) 14#1 pp. 72–77