De gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van 1966 in Amsterdam: campagne, voorkeurstemmen en absenteïsme

Abstract

The article describes the Amsterdam election campaign of June 1966, which, since it took place after the marriage of Princess Beatrix on March 10 and after the clashes between Proves and police, was rather tumultuous. The elections for the Provincial Councils in March showed a big change in Dutch politics. The Labour Party lost considerably, whereas the Farmers’ Party and the Pacifist Socialist Party made the largest gains. It was against this turbulent background that the municipal elections were held on June 1; there were fifteen parties contesting the 45 seats in the Municipal Council. The campaign showed a lot of new aspects. The Labour Party tried to stress local issues; it used campaign methods which were new in the Netherlands, such as the establishment of town districts each with its own candidate; this party and the Liberal Party held hearings. The Labour Party directed its campaign especially to the youth of Amsterdam, for example by organizing political discussions with beatbands, the so-called ’Walk- in-Talk in’. The Provos had their own political movement, ’Provo’. 'They held a campaign with an artistic flavour and put forward many original proposals for solving local problems. Some remarkable results were; 1. Provo got its best results in the higher status areas of the town and especially in the inner city; 2. the percentage} of absenteism increased from lower status to higher status areas of the town; 3. some candidates, who held a personal campaign in their own district or neighbourhood, obtained a remarkable number of preference voters in that district; 4. in some districts the Labour Party obtained favourable results with their campaining activities, but in other districts the results were nil or even negative. It may be concluded that it is very difficult to discover the electoral results of an election campaign in the Netherlands.