THE HAGUE, March 22 (Xinhua) -- With around 99 percent of the votes counted, green leftists GroenLinks and local parties are the major winners of Wednesday's municipal council elections in the Netherlands, it was confirmed Thursday.
Local parties won 32.8 percent of the votes, compared to 29.7 during the last municipal council elections four years ago. In the second biggest Dutch city of Rotterdam, local party Leefbaar Rotterdam remained the biggest party with a total of 11 seats, but lost three seats compared to four years ago.
In the third biggest city of The Hague, local party Groep De Mos became the biggest party with a rise of six seats to a total of nine.
On a national level, the Christian Democrats CDA finished second behind local parties, with a total of 13.5 percent of the vote. They finished ahead of the liberals VVD (13.3 percent), the democrats D66 (8.9 percent), GroenLinks (8.4 percent) and Labor PvdA (7.4 percent).
Compared to four years ago, the green lefties GroenLinks became the biggest winners of the national parties, rising from 5.2 percent in 2014 to 8.4 percent. In Amsterdam and Utrecht, the green lefties were the biggest winners.
With this result, the party of leader Jesse Klaver continued its momentum, after having booked a major win during national elections last year, with a gain of ten seats in the lower house of parliament. "That we were able to extend the fantastic victory of last year is unique," Klaver said during a party meeting in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
With a gain of 1.4 percent, the VVD, the party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, also did better than in 2014.
The CDA suffered a minor loss, while D66, PvdA and the Socialist Party SP suffered major losses. The right-wing Party for Freedom PVV joined the municipal council elections for the first time in several cities and got two seats in Rotterdam and one in Utrecht. In Amsterdam, the right-wing Forum voor Democratie got three seats, according to preliminary results.
Migrant party Denk also joined the municipal council elections for the first time and entered with three seats in Rotterdam, two in Utrecht and three in Amsterdam. The official results are to be announced on Friday by each municipality.
The turnout was slightly better than four years ago -- 54.8 percent compared to 54 percent in 2014.
On March 29, the Dutch Electoral Council will announce the result of the referendum on the Intelligence and Security Services Act, which was held alongside municipal council elections on Wednesday.
This is mainly about whether the intelligence and security services MIVD and AIDV should get more powers to tap phones and internet traffic. The results now show a slight advantage for a "no" vote, but it is too close to call.
In February 2017, a majority in the lower house voted in support of the Act, which was approved by the senate five months later. The law is supposed to go into effect in May this year. The referendum results provide an opinion and are not binding.
