1918 Dutch general election

1918 Dutch general election

3 July 1918

All 100 seats in the House of Representatives 51 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– AB Willem Hubert Nolens 30.03 30 +6 SDAP Pieter Jelles Troelstra 21.95 22 +7 ARP Abraham Kuyper 13.43 13 +1 CHU Alexander de Savornin Lohman 6.56 7 −2 LU Eduard Ellis van Raalte 6.19 6 −15 VDB Henri Marchant 5.27 5 −3 BVL Alibert Cornelis Visser van IJzendoorn 3.80 4 −6 EB Willem Treub 3.11 3 New SDP David Wijnkoop 2.31 2 New MP Abraham Staalman 0.94 1 New CDP Andries Staalman 0.79 1 New PB Frederik Bos 0.68 1 New SP Harm Kolthek 0.67 1 New BCS Willy Kruyt 0.63 1 New CSP Adolf Robbert van de Laar 0.61 1 New NP Henri ter Hall 0.53 1 New VDW Willem Wijk 0.51 1 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Cabinet before Cabinet after Cort van der Linden cabinet Liberal First Ruijs de Beerenbrouck cabinet AB–ARP–CHU

General elections were held in the Netherlands on 3 July 1918. They were the first elections held after a series of reforms that introduced universal male suffrage and pure proportional representation, replacing the previous two-round system in single member constituencies. This change was known as the Pacification of 1917, which also included the introduction of state financing of religious schools, and led to the start of consociational democracy.

The change in the electoral system led to major changes in the political makeup of the House of Representatives. The confessional right-wing parties, the General League of Roman Catholic Electoral Associations, the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union, together won 50 seats. Along with two Christian splinter parties (the Christian Democratic Party and the Christian Social Party) they were able to gain a majority of 52 seats.

The liberal parties lost the most seats. While in 1917, two of the liberal parties, the Liberal Union and the League of Free Liberals, had won 31 seats, they were now reduced to 10 seats. Together with three smaller liberal parties, liberals now held only 15 seats in the House of representatives.

The fragmentation of the House was caused by the low electoral threshold of just 0.5%, with the smallest party, the Alliance for the Democratisation of the Army, managing to win a seat with only 6,828 votes.

The elections were the first in which Dutch women could stand for election, despite still not being allowed to vote. Suze Groeneweg was elected as the first female member of the House of Representatives.

Results

A man writing political slogans on a wooden fence in Amsterdam

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	General League	402,962	30.03	30	+5
	Social Democratic Workers' Party	294,495	21.95	22	+7
	Anti-Revolutionary Party	180,187	13.43	13	+2
	Christian Historical Union	88,039	6.56	7	–3
	Liberal Union	83,084	6.19	6	–16
	Free-thinking Democratic League	70,674	5.27	5	–3
	League of Free Liberals	50,999	3.80	4	–6
	Economic League	41,691	3.11	3	–
	Social Democratic Party	31,010	2.31	2	–
	Middle Class Party	12,674	0.94	1	–
	Christian Democratic Party	10,653	0.79	1	–
	Peasants' League	9,089	0.68	1	–
	Socialist Party	8,951	0.67	1	–
	League of Christian Socialists	8,415	0.63	1	–
	Christian Social Party	8,153	0.61	1	–
	Neutral Party	7,153	0.53	1	–
	Alliance for the Democratisation of the Army	6,828	0.51	1	–
	General State Party	6,711	0.50	0	–
	Police Party	6,160	0.46	0	–
	Reformed Political Party	5,180	0.39	0	–
	General Freedom Party	2,691	0.20	0	–
	Van der Zwaag Group	2,649	0.20	0	–
	Alberda Group	735	0.05	0	–
	Kuiper Group	568	0.04	0	–
	Amsterdamese Police and Firefighting Party	417	0.03	0	–
	National League of Protestant Voters	378	0.03	0	–
	People's Welfare Party	301	0.02	0	–
	Neutral and Colonial League	237	0.02	0	–
	People's Party	236	0.02	0	–
	Stoffel Group	235	0.02	0	–
	Braam Group	189	0.01	0	–
Total		1,341,744	100.00	100	0
Registered voters/turnout		1,517,380	–
Source: Kiesraad

See also

• List of candidates in the 1918 Dutch general election