Voters in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen turned out in strong force Wednesday for their respective municipal elections. Hundreds of candidates were running to fill the seats in forty city, township and village councils across the north.
Polls were open from 7:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.
According to voting statistics provided by the Algemene Dagblad, just over half of eligible voters turned out for the 2022 municipal elections in the three northern provinces. Local parties, which focus on issues that matter to people in their community, are the clearest winners in the contest. In Drenthe and Friesland, they won over two thirds of municipal seats. A few big national parties, like VVD and CDA, lost some of their seats in all the three provinces.
Election results can be viewed below (2018 numbers are in brackets for comparison):
Groningen
Turnout: 51.9 percent (+ 6.3%)
Local parties: 84 seats (+29)
PvdA: 36 (-1)
CDA: 25 (-5)
GroenLinks: 22 (-4)
ChristenUnie: 22 (-2)
SP: 18 (-9)
VVD: 15 (-7)
D66: 12 (+1)
PVV: 7 (+4)
Partij vd Dieren: 4 (=0)
Friesland
Turnout: 53.9 percent (+ 2.8%)
Local parties: 172 seats (+31)
CDA: 63 (-17)
PvdA: 50 (-5)
VVD: 36 (-10)
GroenLinks: 27 (+3)
ChristenUnie: 25 (-2)
D66: 18 (+1)
BVNL: 6 (+6
SP: 5 (=0)
FvD: 4 (+4)
SGP: 1 (=0)
PVV: 1 (=0)
Drenthe
Turnout: 53.1 percent (- 3.9%)
Local parties: 123 seats (+22)
PvdA: 39 (+2)
VVD: 36 (-8)
CDA: 31 -9)
GroenLinks: 18 (=0)
D66: 17 (-1)
ChristenUnie: 17 (-1)
SP: 8 (-2)
50PLUS: 3 (-1)
FvD: 3 (+3)
PVV: 2 (-1)
SGP: 1 (=0)
The final official results of the election will be announced Monday, March 21.