The Tweede Kamer ("second chamber") is the lower house of the Staten-Generaal, the parliament in the Netherlands. It has 150 seats which are filled through elections using a party-list proportional representation system. The seat of the Tweede Kamer is located in The Hague. The Estates-General (Staten-Generaal) is the parliament of the Netherlands. ... An aerial view of Parliament of India at New Delhi. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ... Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems used in multiple-winner elections (e. ... Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: Den Haag, or officially s-Gravenhage) is the administrative capital of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country, in the province South Holland of which it is also the capital. ...

Functions

The Tweede Kamer is the main chamber of parliament, where discussion of proposed legislation and review of the actions of the cabinet takes place. The cabinet, consisting of the Prime Minister, other ministers and state secretaries is appointed by the Monarch of the Netherlands. In practice, the Monarch appoints a formateur (mediatior) to explore possibilities for parties of the Tweede Kamer to form a governing coalition and find suitable persons for the cabinet. It is not possible for somebody to be a member of both parliament and cabinet, except in the special case where the cabinet has tendered its resignation. Legislation refers to the process of enacting statutory laws, or to the set of statutory laws in a state. ... Alternate meanings in cabinet (disambiguation) A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of... The Netherlands have been an independent monarchy since 1815, and have been governed by members of the House of Orange-Nassau since. ...

The Tweede Kamer is also responsible for the selection of judges to the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad der Nederlanden). A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ... Hoge Raad der Nederlanden is the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, situated in The Hague. ...

Elections

The maximum duration of the Tweede Kamer is four years. Anybody eligible to vote in the Netherlands also has the right to establish a political party and contest elections for the Tweede Kamer (see political parties of the Netherlands). Elections are called when the government has lost the parliament's confidence, the government coalition has broken down, the sitting period of the Kamer expired or when no governing coalition can be formed. The parties wanting to take part must register 43 days before the elections, supplying a list of at least 30 candidates. Parties that do not have any sitting candidates in the chamber must also pay a deposit (11,250 euro for the January 2003 elections) and provide 30 signatures of support from residents of each of the 19 electoral districts in which they want to collect votes. The candidate lists are placed in the hands of the voters at least 14 days before the election. Each candidate list is numbered, with the person in the first position known as the lijsttrekker (key member). The lijsttrekker is usually appointed by the party to lead its election campaign. The lijsttrekker of the party receiving the most seats will often become the Prime Minister. A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... A political party is a political organization subscribing to a certain ideology or formed around very special issues with the aim to participate in power, usually by participating in elections. ... A prime minister may be either: chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives of...

Most citizens and residents of the Netherlands aged 18 or over can vote. A single vote can be placed on any of the candidates. Many voters select one of the lijsttrekkers (Balkenende received 2,393,802 of the CDA's 2,763,480 votes in the January 2003 elections), but alternatively can place a preference vote for a candidate lower on the list. Prime Minister of the Netherlands Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende listen â–¶(?) (* May 7, 1956) is Prime Minister of The Netherlands since July 22, 2002. ...

Once the election results are known, the seats are allocated to the parties. The number of valid national votes cast is divided by 150, the number of seats available, to give a threshold for each seat. Each party's number of votes is divided by this threshold to give an initial number of seats. Any party that received fewer votes than the threshold (i.e., less than one in 150 of the total votes cast) fails to gain representation in the Kamer. Any party that received more than 75% of the threshold will have its deposit refunded. After the initial seats are allocated, the allocation of the remainder seats will follow one of two methods. If the number of seats is greater than 19, a method of greatest averages is used, otherwise a method of greatest surplusses. Parties can agree between themselves to combine their lists (apparently this affects only the allocation of remainder seats.)

Once the number of seats allocated to each party is known, in general they are allocated to candidates in the order that they appear on the party's list. (Hence, before the elections, the candidates near the top may be described as in an electable position, depending on the number of seats that the party is likely to obtain.) If a candidate can not take up the position in parliament (e.g., if they become a minister, decide not to enter parliament, or later resign) then the next candidate on the list takes their place. However at this state the preference votes are also taken into account. If a candidate receives more than one quarter of the threshold then they are considered elected in their own right, jumping over candidates who where placed higher on the list. In the January 2003 elections two candidates received seats exclusively through preference votes. A minister or a secretary is a politician who heads a government ministry or department (e. ...

Recent situation

Elections were held on January 22, 2003 after the resignation of the first Balkenende cabinet. The campaign became a contest between between CDA and PvdA to become the largest party. The PvdA's lijsttrekker, Wouter Bos, declared that he would not become Prime Minister if his party won: the party's candidate was not announced until a few days before the election - Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam, who did not take part in the campaign. The negotiations following the election were lengthy and resulted in a coalition of CDA, VVD and D66 and the second Balkenende cabinet. January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The first cabinet of Jan Peter Balkenende was in office in the Netherlands from July 22, 2002 until October 16 of the same year. ... Wouter Bos, party leader of the Labour Party (PvdA), the largest opposition party in the Netherlands. ... Marius Job Cohen (18 October 1947 - ) is the current mayor of Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands. ... A mayor (from the Latin maīor, meaning larger,greater) is the politician who serves as chief executive official of some types of municipalities. ... Amsterdam Location Country The Netherlands Province North Holland Population 739,295 (1 January 2005) Coordinates 4°54E - 52°22N Website www. ... The second cabinet of Jan Peter Balkenende is in office in the Netherlands from May 27, 2003 It consists of three political parties: VVD, CDA and D66. ...

The allocation of the 150 seats, with the number of votes in parentheses, was:

The other parties contesting the elections were: Partij voor de Dieren (47,754), Leefbaar Nederland (38,894), Partij van de Toekomst (13,845), LijstRatelband.nl (9,045), Duurzaam Nederland (7,271), Nieuwe Communistische Partij (4,854), de Conservatieven.nl (2,521), Vooruitstrevende Integratie Partij (1,623), Alliantie voor Vernieuwing en Democratie (990) and Lijst Veldhoen (296). All of these parties lost their deposit, except for LN which as a sitting party didn't have to pay it. The Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA, Christian Democratic Appeal) is a political party of the Netherlands that was established in 1980. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... The Socialist Party (Dutch: Socialistische Partij) is a socialist party in the Netherlands. ... Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... Democraten 66 (D66), is a social liberal party in the Netherlands. ... The ChristenUnie (Christians Union) is a relatively young political party in the Netherlands. ... The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP, literally Politically Reformed Party) is a Dutch political party following the conservative Christian principles, in the tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church. ... The Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren) is a political party in the Netherlands without parliamentary representation. ... Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands) is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on March 21, 1999, by (among others) Jan Nagel and Henk Westbroek, respectively chairpersons of Leefbaar Hilversum and Leefbaar Utrecht. ...

The total votes cast was 9,654,475, giving a threshold required for a seat of 64,363.167. GL and SP combined their lists for the calculations, as did CU and SGP. The two candidates obtaining seats only because of preference votes were H.P.A. Nawijn (LPF) (21,209) and J.C. Huizinga-Heringa (CU) (19,650).

The Socialistische Partij lost one seat in February 2004 when it expelled Ali Lazrak from its faction. Lazrak decided to continue as a one-man faction.
In August 2004 the entire LPF faction resigned from their party, due to internal politics within the party. They remained as an independent faction, continuing to use the name LPF.
On the 2nd of september 2004 the VVD also lost a seat when Geert Wilders left the faction. He too decided to continue as a one-man faction. Geert Wilders in the Tweede Kamer Geert Wilders (born in Venlo on the 6th of September, 1963) is a Dutch conservative politician who is best known for his views favoring the restriction of immigration, particularly from non-western countries, and his opposition to Turkish EU membership. ...

Historical periods

The campaign for the May 15, 2002 elections was dominated by Pim Fortuyn, first as lijsttrekker of Leefbaar Nederland, then as leader of his own party LPF. The elections were overshadowed by his murder shortly before. The elections were not rescheduled and it was too late to adjust the party list, so Fortuyn became a posthumous candidate. May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn Dr. Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (surname pronounced somewhat like for-TOYN, IPA: ), (February 19, 1948 – May 6, 2002), was a controversial, openly gay, charasmatic politician in the Netherlands who formed his own party Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn or LPF). ...

The allocation of the 150 seats was:

The CDA, LPF and VVD formed the first Balkenende cabinet. In the following months the LPF lost three seats when members resigned from the party, forming two additional parliamentary factions. The Christen-Democratisch Appèl (CDA, Christian Democratic Appeal) is a political party of the Netherlands that was established in 1980. ... Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... The Socialist Party (Dutch: Socialistische Partij) is a socialist party in the Netherlands. ... Democraten 66 (D66), is a social liberal party in the Netherlands. ... The ChristenUnie (Christians Union) is a relatively young political party in the Netherlands. ... The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP, literally Politically Reformed Party) is a Dutch political party following the conservative Christian principles, in the tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church. ... Leefbaar Nederland (Livable Netherlands) is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on March 21, 1999, by (among others) Jan Nagel and Henk Westbroek, respectively chairpersons of Leefbaar Hilversum and Leefbaar Utrecht. ... The first cabinet of Jan Peter Balkenende was in office in the Netherlands from July 22, 2002 until October 16 of the same year. ...

External links

• Official site, in Dutch
• 2003 official election results