The elections are over, the votes have been counted and the new distribution of seats has been announced. You have been able to follow it all on television and read it in the various media. Work is now being done on a new cabinet, for which the VVD, CDA, D'66 and Groen Links were initially approached by the informateur. Whether they will succeed in forming a new government will become apparent later.
Elections in and around Thailand
Although not really important for the big picture, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the voting behavior of the Dutch in Thailand and some neighboring countries and to play with those figures. For that I needed the voting results from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and getting my hands on them was quite a task. The result of Thailand was soon known and for the other countries I approached the respective embassies. Singapore responded quickly with the result, but Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur followed an instruction from The Hague. The result was available for inspection there, but the polling station was not allowed to correspond about it. Come on over, I was told! Yes, yes, just fly to Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur for a few figures!
Municipality of The Hague
Then ask the municipality of The Hague, which coordinated the elections abroad. Initially I was not helped there either, because busy, busy, busy. My argument was that the election results of all municipalities in the Netherlands had been in the newspapers for a long time, but I am not allowed to know what those results were like in the Asian countries mentioned. And behold, earlier this week I received the full results of all elections organized abroad. It was so extensive that I not only got the figures per party, but also for each individual person on the election list.
The results per country
The official number of votes per country is as follows:
- Thailand 551 votes
- Singapore 832 votes
- Malaysia 184 votes
- Indonesia 207 votes
The result per party
I first divided the number of votes in each country among the parties and then converted those figures into a percentage. That seemed a bit clearer to me. Because there is currently talk of a possible coalition of four parties, I have listed their percentages below first, then the percentage of that possible coalition, and for the sake of completeness the percentages of the PvdA and PVV. I left out other parties for a moment; See the result here:
| VVD | CDA | D'66 | Size L. | PvdA | PVV | |||
| Total Netherlands | 21 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 51 | 6 | 13 | |
| Total abroad | 23 | 6 | 24 | 17 | 70 | 8 | 8 | |
| Singapore | 46 | 5 | 28 | 7 | 86 | 5 | 3 | |
| Thailand | 20 | 5 | 17 | 9 | 51 | 6 | 25 | |
| Indonesia | 27 | 3 | 16 | 14 | 60 | 6 | 13 | |
| Malaysia | 39 | 7 | 28 | 9 | 83 | 3 | 7 | |
Comments
- The currently targeted coalition has a narrow majority of 51%.
- Voters abroad have more confidence and give the coalition 70% of the vote.
- This also applies to the four Asian countries, with Thailand showing the same result as the total and Singapore even being 86%.
- Singapore also stands out with its high percentage of VVD voters
- Remarkable is the enormous fall of the PvdA, which can be seen across the board.
- No less remarkable is that the PVV is considerably less popular abroad than in the Netherlands.
- A big question mark for me is the extremely high percentage of PVV voters in Thailand. I'm going to do further research on that.
Thanks in advance Gringo, are there any figures for the direct(er) neighboring countries? For example, the profile of the Dutch in Singapore could be different from that in Thailand (for example, the expat and the pensioner respectively). Voting behavior of Dutch people in Vietnam, Laos, Burma, etc. would therefore also be nice to know, partly because of such profiles. Are those numbers there?
A more detailed response from me later.
Dutch people abroad had to send their voting documents to The Hague in principle. However, for a number of countries (22 to be precise), a polling station was set up on site at the Dutch embassy. There the votes of Dutch people living there were collected and counted.
The four countries I mentioned had a polling station – I would have liked to have included the Philippines, but alas! – from the countries you mentioned, the ballot papers went directly to The Hague, which totaled the votes
Thank you for your comment dear Gringo.
Too bad because a comparison with the countries I mentioned and also the Philippines (also fairly popular among the public that potentially relocated to Thailand, I think) would of course have given a better indication of whether the Dutch in TH are the odd one out or that this kind of Dutch has also settled in more comparable countries.
The amount of PVV voters makes me wonder whether there really are an excessive number of pessimists in Thailand?
“40 percent of the pessimists voted for the PVV. Many people from that group also stayed home on election day. Optimists, on the other hand, voted relatively often for GroenLinks, the VVD and D66.”
Source: http://nos.nl/artikel/2165809-nederlanders-wennen-aan-economische-groei-oude-zorgen-komen-boven.html
And are the Dutch who live here more often less educated than in the other countries you mention?
http://nos.nl/artikel/2163382-gezien-in-het-achtuurjournaal-welke-kiezers-lieten-de-partijen-winnen.html
In short, are they the grumbling, somewhat sour oldies that we find in Thailand in disproportionately large sizes? That they are upset with the discounts on various social services for old age and health care, see it all become less and less and have the idea that things are quickly going downhill back in the Netherlands. That the money that is there is easily 'given away' to asylum seekers and other migrants and that it is therefore extra harsh and unjust that living and surviving in Thailand is becoming more difficult? It looks a bit like it.
Moderator: Please do not chat.
Interesting that people who are Xenos themselves, (Greek for Stranger), vote for a xenophobic party in such large numbers. The argument will be that we have to adapt here and that “they” have to do the same in NL, but there are other means for that than simply wanting them gone.
Another argument could be that we bring in money here while “they” come to get it, but I get the impression that in the Netherlands cultural factors are the main cause of the aversion to foreigners.
I wonder if the Thai people think that the Farang here adapt so well to Thai culture, and if they think that any lack of that is compensated by all that money that just pours in.
I hope that, spurred on by the modern anti-foreigner thinking that is popping up everywhere, a Thai populist will rise up and ask “Do you want more or less Farang?”…..
More?More? Then we will take care of that….
I think that relatively few women took part in the vote in the constituency Thailand ivg with other countries. I know quite a few expats in various countries and they are rather on the D66 line and especially women like to vote for the 'Jessias' of GroenLinks and then the VVD follows. But I'm curious what the research will reveal.
Guess: difference between VVD-Singapore and PVV-Thailand is expats versus pensionados.
Hi Gringo,
Thanks for puzzling. Interesting, especially the difference between PVV voters in Thailand compared to the neighboring countries around you.
The only (big) difference between those countries that I see is that less PVV is voted in the overweight Islamic countries.
And I can still understand that the VVD scores better than average in Singapore, since many business people live there.
Certainly curious about the reason why the PVV is (unfortunately) so popular in Thailand.
Voting for this club was useless in advance if it were for reasons of government.
Then it would have to get at least 76 seats. The PVV has shut itself out and other parties do not want to govern with this party.
I therefore see that the majority voted for the PVV as a protest and not so much for their entire party program.
Await your further findings.
Greetings, Rob.
It is fantastic to see the profound comments that have been posted about less than 1900 votes out of a total of about 10 Million. If De Hondt made a prediction based on this number, he would get ridiculed.
These kinds of numbers are not at all exemplary to have any idea about the backgrounds of the voters. For example, has the ratio of non-voters to voters in Thailand also been considered? In the Netherlands, about 80% voted. Would Thailand then only house about 750 Dutch expats, pensioners?
In short, nice nonsense, but totally meaningless.
You rightly wonder whether the results are representative. There are a few thousand Dutch people in Thailand, the exact number remains only an estimate because as a Dutch person abroad you do not always have to indicate where you live or for how long. There will also be compatriots who have actually emigrated and some of them consciously do not vote. For example, Chris de Boer who has left Nederlabd behind and has no need to vote, as he indicated elsewhere. In addition, there are winter visitors who only partly live in TH and went to the polls in TH or NL. There may also be people who live in TH all year round but, contrary to the law, have not deregistered from the Netherlands and may still have had someone cast their vote in the Netherlands.
All in all, whether the results really show that there are strikingly and disproportionately 'nagging, sour, low-income/educated old people' we do not know. But discussing it is always allowed and is so much fun. As long as no one here claims to have the truth or scientifically acceptable theory, I think that's fine.
The first question must of course be whether the Dutch expats in Thailand are representative of the entire Dutch population. The answer is soon given. No. If you only look at age, marital status and 'working or not', there are very clear differences with the total Dutch population; and that is not strange. And then there is the representativeness of the voters. This only concerns whether the voters are representative of the Dutch expat colony here, not of the entire Dutch population.
The fact that quite a few old Dutch people are staying in Thailand and are under water due to the circumstances is not something to be happy about and should make more people think. The fact that in that group their vote is cast for a party, which should be seen as a protest vote, may also have dawned on many of you by now. Not everyone is doing well and the multitude of parties, each with their own supporters and policy vision, is something that should be abolished. What is needed is a party of representatives that is committed to all Dutch people and must of course do more for the less fortunate than for the well-to-do, because they are well off and need less assistance. The inequality is what is unjust and is felt as such. Not everyone will be able to become rich, but everyone is entitled to a basic need for money and resources. If this is achieved we have won a great battle, but every man for himself society is doing violence to this. So stop with class justice but justice for all Dutch people anywhere in the world.
Looking at the various comments on this site, I had expected the number of PVV members in the many thousands. When I now see the total number, I understand why almost no energy is put into it.
Furthermore, I do not really understand what NL people, who have opted for permanent residence elsewhere, still have to do with Dutch politics (just like Turks in NL).
Dear Harrybr, I speak for myself but met my wife, who is both Thai and Dutch, in the Netherlands years ago and she wanted to go back to her country. Understandable from her perspective and then I will go with her for the last years of my life, because she has been with me in the Netherlands for a long time. That's love doing something for someone else. It is also understandable that as a Dutchman I feel involved in the Netherlands . I have my children and grandchildren there and their lives are also important to me. For some it is out of sight, out of mind, but fortunately there are also people like me with a heart that beats and will always beat for that little country, to which I owe a lot and have lived for more than 60 years. So it is not strange that I still feel connected to politics and the Netherlands. I am Dutch and always will be. I hope you understand this.
Just an addition don't get me wrong I'm not a PVV voter, but I do understand the people. I voted for a party omitted in the table above.
There is a lot wrong in the Netherlands and as long as self-righteousness and egoism (the inequality) prevail it will never become anything and I think it will only get worse and slide further into an unworkable situation, with all the hassle that entails.