1986 Dutch general election

1986 Dutch general election

21 May 1986
All 150 seats in the House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	85.76% ( 4.78pp)
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– CDA Ruud Lubbers 34.59 54 +9 PvdA Joop den Uyl 33.27 52 +5 VVD Ed Nijpels 17.41 27 −9 D66 Hans van Mierlo 6.13 9 +3 SGP Bas van der Vlies 1.74 3 0 PPR Ria Beckers 1.26 2 0 PSP Andrée van Es 1.20 1 −2 GPV Gert Schutte 0.96 1 0 RPF Meindert Leerling 0.91 1 −1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Most voted-for party by municipality Cabinet before Cabinet after First Lubbers cabinet CDA–VVD Second Lubbers cabinet CDA–VVD

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 21 May 1986. The Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) emerged as the largest party, winning 54 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives.

The incumbent CDA-VVD coalition maintained exactly the same number of seats as they had achieved at the last general election and continued working together in government with the CDA's Ruud Lubbers as Prime Minister.

Electoral system

The Dutch parliament was elected using party-list proportional representation with a single nationwide constituency.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Democratic Appeal	3,172,918	34.59	54	+9
	Labour Party	3,051,678	33.27	52	+5
	People's Party for Freedom and Democracy	1,596,991	17.41	27	–9
	Democrats 66	562,466	6.13	9	+3
	Reformed Political Party	159,740	1.74	3	0
	Political Party of Radicals	115,203	1.26	2	0
	Pacifist Socialist Party	110,182	1.20	1	–2
	Reformed Political League	88,381	0.96	1	0
	Reformatory Political Federation	83,582	0.91	1	–1
	Communist Party of the Netherlands	57,847	0.63	0	–3
	Centre Party	36,741	0.40	0	–1
	Socialist Party	32,144	0.35	0	0
	Evangelical People's Party	21,998	0.24	0	–1
	Federation of Greens	18,641	0.20	0	New
	Party for the Middle Groups	15,297	0.17	0	New
	Loesje	12,882	0.14	0	New
	Centre Democrats	12,277	0.13	0	New
	League of Communists in the Netherlands	4,618	0.05	0	New
	Partij voor Ambtenaren & Trendvolgers	4,500	0.05	0	New
	Anti Revolutionaries '85	3,664	0.04	0	New
	Socialist Workers' Party	3,634	0.04	0	New
	God with Us	2,375	0.03	0	0
	General Interest Party	2,128	0.02	0	New
	Luck for Everyone Party	1,184	0.01	0	New
	Wissink List	560	0.01	0	New
	Humanist Party	463	0.01	0	New
	Brummer List	65	0.00	0	New
Total		9,172,159	100.00	150	0
Valid votes		9,172,159	99.70
Invalid/blank votes		27,462	0.30
Total votes		9,199,621	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,727,701	85.76
Source: Kiesraad

By province

Results by province

Province	CDA	PvdA	VVD	D66	SGP	PPR	PSP	GPV	RPF	Others
Drenthe	27.0	43.5	17.8	5.2	0.2	1.1	0.7	1.8	1.1	2.3
Flevoland	29.8	33.6	17.2	7.9	2.6	1.3	0.7	1.6	1.9	2.2
Friesland	34.8	39.5	13.0	5.2	0.6	1.1	0.8	1.6	1.4	1.5
Gelderland	37.5	31.5	16.4	5.4	3.0	1.4	1.1	0.7	1.3	1.7
Groningen	23.0	46.9	13.5	5.4	0.2	1.6	1.5	3.9	1.1	2.0
Limburg	46.0	34.0	11.3	4.4	0.0	1.0	0.8	0.1	0.1	2.4
North Brabant	44.2	29.6	15.4	5.5	0.4	1.1	1.1	0.2	0.3	1.7
North Holland	27.7	34.5	21.5	7.7	0.3	1.5	2.0	0.4	0.5	3.4
Overijssel	41.1	31.2	13.3	4.8	2.2	1.1	0.8	2.3	1.7	3.1
South Holland	29.4	33.7	19.7	7.0	3.1	1.1	1.1	0.8	1.0	3.9
Utrecht	33.8	26.6	21.6	7.0	2.5	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.2	1.6
Zeeland	32.9	29.6	17.8	5.5	7.9	1.0	0.7	1.4	1.5	2.9

Further reading

• Van Der Eijk, Cees; Irwin, Galen; Niemöller, Kees (1986). "The Dutch parliamentary election of May 1986". Electoral Studies. 5 (3): 289–296.
• Gladdish, Ken. "The Centre Holds: the 1986 Netherlands Election," West European Politics (1987). 10#1 pp. 115–119