1981 Dutch general election

(Redirected from Dutch general election, 1981)

← 1977

26 May 1981

1982 →

All 150 seats in the House of Representatives
76 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

87.0% (

1.1 pp)

	Leader	Vote %	Seats	+/–
CDA	Dries van Agt	30.8%	48	−1
PvdA	Joop den Uyl	28.3%	44	−9
VVD	Hans Wiegel	17.3%	26	−2
D66	Jan Terlouw	11.1%	17	+9
PSP	Fred van der Spek	2.1%	3	+2
CPN	Marcus Bakker	2.1%	3	+1
SGP	Henk van Rossum	2.0%	3	0
PPR	Ria Beckers	2.0%	3	0
RPF	Meindert Leerling	1.2%	2	+2
GPV	Gert Schutte	0.8%	1	0

This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

Most voted-for party by municipality

Cabinet before	Cabinet after
First Van Agt cabinet CDA–VVD	Second Van Agt cabinet CDA–PvdA–D66

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 26 May 1981. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) emerged as the largest party, winning 48 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.

The incumbent Christian Democratic Appeal-People's Party for Freedom and Democracy coalition lost its overall majority leading to a new coalition being formed between the CDA, the Labour Party (PvdA) and Democrats 66, with the CDA's Dries van Agt continuing as Prime Minister. However due to disagreements between the CDA and PvdA on government spending the coalition collapsed after just a year, leading to fresh elections.

Results



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Appeal	2,677,259	30.81	48	–1
	Labour Party	2,458,452	28.29	44	–9
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,505,311	17.32	26	–2
	Democrats 66	961,121	11.06	17	+9
	Pacifist Socialist Party	184,422	2.12	3	+2
	Communist Party of the Netherlands	178,292	2.05	3	+1
	Reformed Political Party	171,324	1.97	3	0
	Political Party of Radicals	171,042	1.97	3	0
	Reformatory Political Federation	108,364	1.25	2	+2
	Reformed Political League	70,878	0.82	1	0
	Democratic Socialists '70	48,568	0.56	0	–1
	Evangelical People's Party	45,189	0.52	0	New
	Socialist Party	30,380	0.35	0	0
	Roman Catholic Party of the Netherlands	20,812	0.24	0	0
	Rightist People's Party	17,371	0.20	0	–1
	Centre Party	12,242	0.14	0	New
	Dutch People's Union	10,641	0.12	0	0
	Liveable Netherlands [nl]	8,336	0.10	0	New
	Survive Together or Die	3,377	0.04	0	New
	Realists '81 [nl]	2,080	0.02	0	New
	International Communist League	1,814	0.02	0	New
	God with Us [nl]	918	0.01	0	New
	Wereld Welzijns Bewustwording [nl]	891	0.01	0	New
	Party for the Liquidation of the Netherlands [nl]	826	0.01	0	New
	The Peace Party	464	0.01	0	New
	Partij Van Rijksgenoten	207	0.00	0	New
	Small Party	186	0.00	0	New
	Dutch Evolution Party	70	0.00	0	New
Total		8,690,837	100.00	150	0

Valid votes		8,690,837	99.46
Invalid/blank votes		47,401	0.54
Total votes		8,738,238	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,040,121	87.03
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province
Province	CDA	PvdA	VVD	D'66	PSP	CPN	SGP	PPR	RPF	GPV	Others
Province											Others
Drenthe	24.8	38.6	17.8	9.3	1.3	1.3	0.3	1.6	1.5	1.6	1.9
Friesland	33.2	33.2	12.7	9.5	1.7	1.7	0.8	1.8	2.1	1.4	1.9
Gelderland	34.4	26.1	16.6	10.2	2.1	0.8	3.4	2.1	1.7	0.5	2.1
Groningen	21.4	39.3	13.4	8.8	2.6	4.1	0.2	2.2	1.7	3.7	2.6
Limburg	43.4	25.3	12.6	11.2	1.6	1.1	0.1	1.9	0.1	0.1	2.6
North Brabant	42.7	23.6	14.5	11.2	1.9	0.9	0.5	1.9	0.3	0.1	2.4
North Holland	22.7	28.4	21.3	12.4	3.5	5.3	0.4	2.4	0.8	0.3	2.5
Overijssel	37.8	26.8	13.2	9.2	1.2	1.1	2.8	1.5	2.4	2.1	1.9
South Holland	23.7	31.2	19.8	12.0	1.9	1.9	3.5	1.7	1.8	1.6	0.9
Southern IJsselmeer Polders	20.8	30.8	18.9	14.6	1.7	4.6	0.6	2.4	1.5	1.0	3.1
Utrecht	28.9	22.6	21.9	11.4	2.5	1.4	3.0	2.5	1.8	1.4	2.6
Zeeland	29.5	27.2	17.0	9.9	1.1	0.7	8.0	1.8	1.9	1.2	1.7

References

Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1396 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
van Mierlo, Hans J. G. A. (1981). "The 1981 Netherlands election". West European Politics. 4 (3): 297–301. doi:10.1080/01402388108424339. ISSN 0140-2382.
Nohlen & Stöver, p1414
^ "Tweede Kamer 26 mei 1981". Kiesraad.

v t e Elections and referendums in the Netherlands
General	1848 1850 1852 1853 1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 (Jun) 1866 (Oct) 1868 1869 1871 1873 1875 1877 1879 1881 1883 1884 1886 1887 1888 1891 1894 1897 1901 1905 1909 1913 1917 1918 1922 1925 1929 1933 1937 1946 1948 1952 1956 1959 1963 1967 1971 1972 1977 1981 1982 1986 1989 1994 1998 2002 2003 2006 2010 2012 2017 2021 2023 Next
Provincial	1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Municipal	1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022
Water board	2008 2015 2019 2023
Electoral college	2019 2023
Island council	2011 2015 2019 2020 2023
European	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Referendums	1797 1798 1801 1805 2005 2016 2018
See also: Senate elections Elections and referendums in Aruba Curaçao Sint Maarten Netherlands Antilles

Categories: