At least 53 councilors from Brabant who have been elected to the municipal council do not use their council seat. Of them, 45 were even chosen on the basis of preferential votes. They often received hundreds of votes, but still choose not to participate in the city council. Why does someone stand for election and then give up their seat?
Councilors have several reasons for this. Ad Mallens (Common Sense Goirle Riel) indicates that he expected to be ‘safe’ at number ten on the list, in an ineligible place. He received more than expected many preferential votes and that nevertheless earned him a seat on the council.
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For many years Mallens was chairman of the sports association VOAB in Goirle and had weekly meetings. “So I’m done with meetings after all these years.” Nevertheless, he indicates that he is the first reserve to be ready in the unlikely event that someone from his party drops out temporarily. “But permanently sitting on the council for the next four years is not an option for me. That doesn’t make me happy.”
Too little experience was, among others, a reason for Danny van Herpen (CDA Bernheze) and Bart van Lieshout (leader of the CDA Nuenen) to take a step back.
Corné van den Herik (Altena Lokaal) obtained exactly as many preference votes as his party colleague John Bakker. According to the law, there is then a lottery and Van den Herik won. But after consultation, they came to the conclusion that it would be better if Bakker took a seat on the council. Van den Herik has too little experience and is busy with his work.
Other reasons that were often mentioned were private circumstances and the ambition to become an alderman. That does not mean that they will actually become aldermen, because in most municipalities the coalition negotiations have not yet been completed. Twelve seat refusals indicate that they have a different reason. For example, Tycho Holleman (VVD Hilvarenbeek), who is relinquishing his place in the city council because he was unexpectedly appointed at the end of February as a Member of the Provincial Council.
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Is this voter fraud? According to Professor of Public Administration at Radboud University, Michiel de Vries, it is very simple: “If you put yourself on the electoral list and then get enough votes for a council seat, you should also take that place. just a form of voter fraud.”
“If you’re too busy with work or have too little experience, you should have thought of that in advance. Then you just shouldn’t be on the list. When it comes to unforeseen health problems it’s understandable, but otherwise not.”
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According to Julien van Ostaijen, public administration expert at Avans Hogeschool and Tilburg University, it should not be up to the voter to find out whether or not someone wants to join the city council. “The voter must be able to count on the people on the list actually wanting to be on the council. And if list pushers then say: ‘The voter knows that I am in a non-electable position’ or ‘I told the media that I don’t want to be on the council’, then I don’t think that’s good reasoning.”
Bad for confidence?
According to Van Ostaijen, councilors who renounce their seat because they only want to become an alderman and not a councilor should simply no longer participate in the municipal elections. “In the Netherlands you do not have to be on the list to become an alderman, so if you are not prepared to do council work in advance, do not put yourself on the list.”
Do the seat refusals cause less confidence in politics? Van Ostaijen: “We don’t know whether this is bad for confidence in the city council, but it certainly doesn’t seem good to me.”
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The ‘seal rejecters’ see this differently. According to the CDA Bernheze, their (withdrawn) party leader does not harm confidence at all. “Danny is definitely going to do something with the trust placed in him. He will fill that in in a different role than a councilor and as a board member,” said Mart Smits of the CDA Herpen. According to him, the voters reacted very positively to this choice.
Jeroen Hendrickx of Common Sense Goirle Riel understands it when people call voter fraud. “Strictly speaking it is. In practice, however, it is not realistic to expect that all 30 candidates on a list can and want to be elected.”
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