Labor wins big in Amsterdam city council election; Exit poll margin razor thin

Amsterdam seemed likely to have a new largest political party on the city council, according to an early exit poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of NOS. The polling data showed the Labour party (PvdA) winning 17.3 percent of ballots, up 6.6 percent compared to 2018.

That put the party just barely above GroenLinks, which seemed to secure 16.5 percent of the vote, a decrease of nearly 4 percent. The close result between the two parties appeared to be within the margin of error, but led to a jubilant celebration at the Labour party’s election night festivities.

BIJ1 also looked to more than triple its vote total, taking nearly 7 percent, and first-timers Volt took 4.1 percent, and JA21 took 3.7 percent of the vote.

Forum voor Democratie saw the biggest decrease, falling 4 percent to 1.8 percent.

The exit poll results show Labour gaining four seats, bringing their total to nine, while GroenLinks fell one seat to nine. Both D66 and VVD looked likely to lose a seat, dropping to seven and five seats respectively.

BIJ1 was expected to jump from one seat to three, meeting Partij voor de Dieren, which was unchanged. Volt and JA21 looked likely to earn two seats, matching them with SP and Denk which each lost a seat.

FvD was projected to lose two of its three seats on the Amsterdam city council.

Some 872,400 people live in Amsterdam.