Low voter turnout in local elections; PvdA, VVD score

The initial results of the municipal elections are in. The elections took place on Wednesday in 16 municipalities. Six new municipalities were formed. As expected it appears that local parties scored well. The preliminary results in Oss show that the PvdA and VVD did poorly. The Social Democrats went from four seats to two and the Liberals from six to three. The SP retained their nine seats in Oss. The local party Voor de Gemeenschap (For the Community) is now the largest with 11 seats. In Den Bosch the D66 got the most votes. The Social Liberals got an additional two seats and now have a total of five, just like the local party Bosch Belang and the VVD, who lost two seats. The CDA also now has five seats, gaining one. The PvdA in Den Bosch lost one seat and dropped from five to four. In Alkmaar, which merged with two smaller municipalities, the local OPA (Onafhankelijke Partij Alkmaar) became the largest party with about 22 percent of the votes. The PvdA, which like OPA had 7 seats in the council, was second with about 14 percent of the votes and lost a seat. The CDA and VVD get four seats in the new council. According to the first exit poll, the ONS (Onafhankelijk Nieu Spijkenisse) is the largest party in the new municipality Nissewaard, which consists of Spijkenisse and Bernisse. In Krimpenerwaard, another new municipality, the local party Gemeentebelang Krimpenerward has the most seats. Late on Wednesday night the local parties and the CDA were still neck-on-neck in the Gelderland municipalites Groesbeek, Millingen on de Rijn and Ubbergen.