House of Representatives (Netherlands)

The Tweede Kamer is the lower house of parliament in the Netherlands. It has 150 seats which are filled through elections using a party-list system. The building of the Tweede Kamer is located in The Hague.

To take part in elections for the Tweede Kamer, a party must provide a list of candidates and a deposit of 11,000 euro (2002). They must also provide 30 signatures of support for each of the 19 electoral districts in which they want to collect votes. The seats are allocated according to the proportion of national votes received. A party gains representation in the Tweede Kamer only if it receives at least 1/150 of the national votes. i.e., a sufficient share of the votes for one seat. The party's deposit is refunded if it reaches 75% of this number of votes.

The parties' candadate lists are numbered, with the person in the first position known as the lijsttrekker and usually appointed at the beginning of the election campaign. The lijsttrekker of the party receiving the most seats will often become the Prime Minister. The parties fill their seats in the order that the candidates appear on the list, so the candidates near the top are often described as in an electable position, depending on the number of seats that the party is likely to obtain. If a candidate can not take up the position in parliament (e.g., if they become a minister, decide not to enter parliament, or later resign) then the next candidate on the list takes their place.

New elections are to be held on January 22, 2003 after the resignation of the first Balkenende cabinet.

As of December 7, 2002 the allocation of the 150 seats is:

Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA)	43
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD)	24
Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF)	23
Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA)	23
GroenLinks (GL)	10
Socialistische Partij (SP)	9
Democraten 66 (D66)	7
ChristenUnie (CU)	4
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP)	2
Leefbaar Nederland (LN)	2
Others (former LPF members)	3