Preferential votes helped women dethrone male lead candidates in several city councils

Like in previous elections, preferential votes have gotten more women into municipal councils. This year, a striking trend emerged. For many parties that won one seat in the municipal council, it isn’t the male lead candidate who won that seat, but the female second candidate, AD reports.

In Zwolle, for example, SP lead candidate Brammert Geerling is leaving the municipal council after 12 years because number two, Sandra Drost, received more votes. She is taking over Geerling’s seat.

In the Utrecht region, the same thing happened with Volt factions in De Bilt, Soest, Zeist, and Houten. In Houten, where Volt is entering the municipal council for the first time with one seat, it won’t be lead candidate Rob Cortjens (348 votes) who takes the seat, but number two, Julia Hamel (436 votes).

“It’s a bit hard to swallow for me personally,” Cortjens told AD. He campaigned hard and really wanted to serve on the city council. But he isn’t too disappointed. Volt considers more women in politics to be extremely important. “For that reason, I myself have voted for a woman every time over the past 20 years. That is a strong sentiment within the party, and I am now being confronted with the consequences of that view myself. I have to accept that with some degree of happiness.”

Julia Hamel sees her election as a clear signal from voters. “I became politically active over five years ago, partly because I felt there were too few women in elected positions. The fact that so many people consciously voted for a woman shows that this desire exists among the residents of Houten as well.”

In the city of Utrecht, the lead candidate for Student & Starter, Lars van Rooij, received 801 votes, while number two, Aileen Siedneburg, received 1,345. They decided that Van Rooij will take the first half of the term and Sidenburg the second half. Siedenburg said she decided to do it this way “to utilize Lars’s practical experience for a strong start to the council term.”

At local party EenUtrecht, lead candidate Gert Dijkstra (1,367 votes) was also passed over by number two on the list, Loise van Dijk (1,538). The party decided to ignore the preferential votes - Dijkstra will sit on the city council, Van Dijk will not. According to Dijkstra, this was mainly because he is fully available and has experience in the council, while Van Dijk also has other commitments.