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All 100 seats in theHouse of Representatives 51 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 81.41% ( 26.27pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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| This article is part ofa series on |
| Politics of the Netherlands |
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General elections were held in theNetherlands on 6 March 1888,[1] with a second round in 25 constituencies on 20 March.[2] TheLiberal Union emerged as the largest party, winning 46 of the 100 seats in theHouse of Representatives.[3]
This was the first election held after the constitutional revision of 1887, achieved by Minister of the InteriorJan Heemskerk, which had several effects on the parliamentary system. Firstly, this revision fixed the number of seats in the House of Representatives at 100. Secondly, it abolished multi-seat electoral districts except in large cities in favour of single-seat districts, thus allowing for better representation of geographically concentrated political minorities. Thirdly, the revision ensured all members of the House of Representatives would be elected simultaneously every four years, replacing the previous system ofstaggered elections. Finally, the change greatly extended suffrage and allowed for gradual further extension by law.[4]
The election was won by theconfessional parties, leading to the firstCoalition government, combining Anti-Revolutionaries and Catholics, led byÆneas, Baron Mackay,[5] thus heralding a period ofAntithesis as championed byAbraham Kuyper, in which government alternated between secular liberals on the left and confessional Anti-Revolutionaries and Catholics on the right.[6] The election also saw the first socialist elected into the House of Representatives, withFerdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, leader of theSocial Democratic League, being elected in a rural Frisian district.[7]
Of the 100 seats in the House of Representatives, 79 were elected in single-member constituencies using thetwo-round system.
The other 21 were elected using two-roundplurality block voting in 5 constituencies from 2 to 9 seats. To be elected in the first round, a candidate had to reach an electoral threshold of 50% of the number of valid votes cast, divided by the number of seats up for election in the district.
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| Party | First round | Second round | Total seats | +/– | |||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| Liberal Union | 195,322 | 48.93 | 33 | 44,662 | 49.48 | 12 | 45 | –3 | |
| Anti-Revolutionary Party | 97,848 | 24.51 | 20 | 22,400 | 24.81 | 7 | 27 | +8 | |
| Catholics | 76,521 | 19.17 | 20 | 20,138 | 22.31 | 6 | 26 | +7 | |
| Radicals | 11,313 | 2.83 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Social Democratic League | 4,016 | 1.01 | 0 | 1,167 | 1.29 | 1 | 1 | +1 | |
| Other parties | 14,149 | 3.54 | 1 | 1,901 | 2.11 | 0 | 1 | +1 | |
| Total | 399,169 | 100.00 | 74 | 90,268 | 100.00 | 26 | 100 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 236,310 | 98.95 | 83,845 | 99.13 | |||||
| Invalid votes | 441 | 0.18 | 134 | 0.16 | |||||
| Blank votes | 2,059 | 0.86 | 599 | 0.71 | |||||
| Total votes | 238,810 | 100.00 | 84,578 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 293,339 | 81.41 | 110,430 | 76.59 | |||||
| Source: Kiesraad,[8][9] Huygens[2] | |||||||||
Social Democratic Liberal Conservative Anti-Revolutionary Catholic
