Parliamentary Elections, 22 November 2006

In response to an invitation from the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the OSCE, ODIHR deployed an election assessment mission for the 22 November parliamentary elections.

Led by Julian Peel Yates of the United Kingdom, the mission included nine election experts from eight OSCE participating States. In addition to experts based in The Hague, the EAM deployed teams to Groningen and Eindhoven and paid visits to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

According to the mission's final report: "The Netherlands has a long tradition of conducting democratic elections, as was demonstrated by these parliamentary elections. This practice was underscored by an overall high level of public confidence. The electoral system of proportional representation encourages political diversity and plurality, offering voters a wide and genuine choice. Turnout was reported at 80.35 percent."

Members of the Election Assessment Mission

Head of Mission: Julian Peel Yates (United Kingdom)
Election Expert: Paul De Gregorio (USA)
Legal Expert: Inna Shyrokova (Ukraine)
Election Expert: Marcus Brand (Austria)
Election Expert: Kamen Ivanov (Bulgaria)
Election Expert: Irena Hadziabdic (Croatia)
Election/E-voting Expert: Douglas Jones (USA)
Election/E-voting Expert: Tarvi Martens (Estonia)
ODIHR Senior Election Adviser: Vadim Zhdanovich (Russian Federation)