Country-wide Water Board elections have low turn-out

ZWOLLE – Political parties have set their sights at another layer of governance that so far had remained the domain of property owners and independents: the waterschappen or Water Boards. For the first time in their long history, elections for the 26 remaining boards were held on the same date throughout the country. A special party Water Natuurlijk or Water Naturally, launched fairly recently, gained 100 of the 502 available seats. The Christian Democrats took 89 seats, Labour 60, the conservative liberal VVD 59. The others seats were divided by five smaller parties and groups. Six of the nine parties are also represented in the Second Chamber. The turnout was only 24 percent of eligible voters.