2015 Dutch Senate election explained

Election Name:2015 Dutch Senate election
Country:Netherlands
Type:parliamentary
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:2011 Dutch Senate election
Previous Year:2011
Next Election:2019 Dutch Senate election
Next Year:2019
Seats For Election:All 75 seats to the Senate
38 seats are needed for a majority
Election Date:26 May 2015
Leader1:Loek Hermans
Party1:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Last Election1:16 seats, 20,8%
Seats1:13
Seat Change1:3
Popular Vote1:28,523
Percentage1:16.9%
Swing1:3.9%
Leader2:Elco Brinkman
Party2:Christian Democratic Appeal
Last Election2:11 seats, 14.6%
Seats2:12
Seat Change2:1
Popular Vote2:25,145
Percentage2:14.9%
Swing2:0.3%
Leader3:Thom de Graaf
Party3:Democrats 66
Last Election3:5 seats, 7.6%
Seats3:10
Seat Change3:5
Popular Vote3:21,997
Percentage3:13.0%
Swing3:5.4%
Leader4:Marjolein Faber
Party4:Party for Freedom
Last Election4:10 seats, 13.1%
Seats4:9
Seat Change4:1
Popular Vote4:20,235
Percentage4:12.0%
Swing4:1.1%
Leader5:Tiny Kox
Party5:Socialist Party (Netherlands)
Last Election5:8 seats, 10.3%
Seats5:9
Seat Change5:1
Popular Vote5:20,038
Percentage5:11.9%
Swing5:1.6%
Leader6:Marleen Barth
Party6:Labour Party (Netherlands)
Last Election6:14 seats, 18.1%
Seats6:8
Seat Change6:6
Popular Vote6:17,651
Percentage6:10.5%
Swing6:7.6
Map Size:300px
President
Before Election:Ankie Broekers-Knol
Before Party:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
After Election:Ankie Broekers-Knol
After Party:People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
Turnout:100,0%

Elections of the Dutch Senate were held on 26 May 2015. The elected senators were sworn in on 9 June 2015.

Electoral system

The Senate is elected by the members of the States-Provincial of the country's twelve provinces, who had been directly elected by the citizens two months earlier, in the 2015 provincial elections. The value of a vote is determined by the population of the province in which the voter is a member of the States-Provincial. The seats are distributed in one nationwide constituency using party-list proportional representation.

ProvinceMembersPopulationValue
South Holland553,600,784655
North Holland552,762,163502
North Brabant552,489,325453
Gelderland552,026,393368
Utrecht491,263,509258
Overijssel471,140,659243
Limburg471,118,054238
Friesland43646,324150
Groningen43584,104136
Drenthe41488,611119
Flevoland41401,50398
Zeeland39380,71798

Results

PartiesVoteSeats
VotesValueWon+/-
 People's Party for Freedom and Democracy9028,52313 3
 Christian Democratic Appeal8925,14512 1
 Democrats 666721,99710 5
 Party for Freedom6620,2359 1
 Socialist Party7020,0389 1
 Labour Party6317,6518 6
 GroenLinks309,5204 1
 Christian Union328,2373 1
 Party for the Animals186,0732 1
 Reformed Political Party174,5972 1
 50PLUS144,3882 1
 Independent Senate Group142,6521
Total570169,05675
align=left colspan=6 Source: Kiesraad