Sixteen political parties have registered to take part in the Provincial Council elections in the province of Drenthe in 2019.
Translation by Traci White
The Provincial Council elections will be held on the 20thof March, and RTV Drenthe reports that two new national parties – Labour party split DENK and far right wing Forum for Democracy – are planning to run for election in the province.
In 2015, there were 11 parties that were in the running for the 41 seats in the Provincial Council, also known as the Drents parliament. RTV Drenthe reports that the parties had until Monday, 24 December to officially register to run in the elections. The top candidates for DENK and Forum had not yet been announced as of Monday, but the other 14 parties that were running have published their candidate list and party platforms.
The parties and top candidates that have been confirmed as running in the upcoming elections are the VVD (Henk Brink), PvdA (Cees Bijl), CDA (Henk Jumelet), SP (Greetje Dikkers), PVV (Nico Uppelschoten), D66 (Anry Kleine Deters), ChristenUnie (Tjisse Stelpstra), GroenLinks (Hans Kuipers), Sterk Lokaal (Aimee van der Ham), 50PLUS (Frank Duut), Partij voor de Dieren (Thea Potharst), SGP (Willem van Hartskamp) and Senioren Belang (Bé Hoeksema).
The parties and their candidates will be officially announced during a New Year’s Reception on the 8thof January. The Provincial Council consists of 41 seats, and the VVD has been the largest party on the provincial level for the past four years, followed by the PvdA. The CDA, SP, PVV, D66, ChristenUnie, GroenLinks, 50PLUS and Sterk Lokaal all have seats in the current parliament. The VVD and PvdA currently have 7 seats a piece. The Provincial Council elections are held every four years, and the council also chooses a board to represent the province in the Provincial Executive Council.
Photo source: drentsparlement.nl
