Dutch VVD party wins general election with uncertainty of coalition government

THE HAGUE, June 9, 2010 (Xinhua) --

The Dutch centre-right liberal VVD party, led by Mark Rutte, wins the general election on Wednesday for the first time ever since it was founded in 1948, preliminary results shows. However without one single party having the majority, this outcome might bring more uncertainty than ever.

According to preliminary results released by local TV NOS early in the morning of Thursday, VVD wins 31 out of the total 150 parliamentary seats, and becomes the biggest party in the second Chamber of the States-General, while the Labour Party(PvdA) get 30 seats.

"The voters have shown that they agree with our vision, to bring the Dutch economy back to normal,” 43-year-old Mark Rutte, the party leader of VVD, addressed supporters in the celebration party, "We have already said that from early 2008 we had to take strong measures, as an economic heavy weather arrived. Then we were ignored. But we have a lot of optimism, hope and future. The voters have reward."

"We have done our responsibility," said Job Cohen, leader of the Labour Party(PvdA). According to the exit polls released immediately after the election, PvdA could win 31 seats just the same as VVD. But finally it got only 30 seats.

“This is a very, very disappointing result, but the voters have spoken. The result is clear!” said caretaker Prime Minister Balkenende when addressing supporters at the CDA headquarters in The Hague. Balkenende resigned Wednesday and also left the leadership of CDA.

Based on the preliminary results, it is more likely that VVD would either ask the PVV (24 seats) and CDA (21 seats) to be their coalition partner, or form a government with PvdA and more smaller parties, such as D66 (10 seats) and GroenLinks (10 seats), in order to pass the threshold of 76 seats minimum.

However, the formation of government through coalition remains unclear.

Editor: Xiong Tong

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