electionstracker

Netherlands 1989 general election

What was the result of the 1989 general election in the Netherlands?

Christian Democratic Appeal won 54 of 150 seats with 35.3% of the vote. 80.3% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Netherlands
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Christian Democratic Appeal won 54 of 150 seats with 35.3% of the vote; 80.3% of registered voters cast a ballot, down 5.5 points on 1986.

  • Christian Democratic Appeal 54 0 seats 35.3% +0.7 points
  • Labour Party 49 −3 seats 31.9% −1.4 points
  • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy 22 −5 seats 14.6% −2.8 points
  • Democrats 66 12 +3 seats 7.9% +1.8 points
  • GroenLinks 6 4.1%
  • Reformed Political Party 3 0 seats 1.9% +0.1 points
  • Reformed Political League 2 +1 seat 1.2% +0.3 points
  • Reformatory Political Federation 1 0 seats 1.0% +0.1 points
  • Centre Democrats 1 0.9%
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Netherlands 1986 general election, party by party.

76 of 150 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 35.3%

    Share of the vote won by Christian Democratic Appeal

    Christian Democratic Appeal won 54 of 150 seats. A majority needs 76.

  2. +3 seats

    Seats gained by Democrats 66

    The largest gain in seats compared with 1986. People's Party for Freedom and Democracy lost 5 seats.

  3. 80.3%

    Voter turnout

    Down 5.5 points on 1986.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Christian Democratic Appeal54035.3+0.73,140,502
Labour Party49−331.9−1.42,835,251
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy22−514.6−2.81,295,402
Democrats 6612+37.9+1.8701,934
GroenLinks64.1362,304
Reformed Political Party301.9+0.1166,082
Reformed Political League2+11.2+0.3109,637
Reformatory Political Federation101.0+0.185,231
Centre Democrats10.981,427
Socialist Party00.438,870

± is the change against the Netherlands 1986 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Christian Democratic Appeal 3,140,502
  • Labour Party 2,835,251
  • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy 1,295,402
  • Democrats 66 701,934
  • GroenLinks 362,304
  • Reformed Political Party 166,082
  • Reformed Political League 109,637
  • Reformatory Political Federation 85,231
  • Centre Democrats 81,427
  • Socialist Party 38,870

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

80.3% of the 11,112,189 registered voters cast a ballot (8,919,787 ballots), down 5.5 points on 1986. 8,893,302 of them were valid votes. The lowest turnout since 1971 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Christian Democratic Appeal35.3% of votes36.0% of seats
  • Labour Party31.9% of votes32.7% of seats
  • People's Party for Freedom and Democracy14.6% of votes14.7% of seats
  • Democrats 667.9% of votes8.0% of seats
  • GroenLinks4.1% of votes4.0% of seats
  • Reformed Political Party1.9% of votes2.0% of seats
  • Reformed Political League1.2% of votes1.3% of seats
  • Reformatory Political Federation1.0% of votes0.7% of seats
  • Centre Democrats0.9% of votes0.7% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 0.9 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.9 by votes and 3.8 by seats; Christian Democratic Appeal led Labour Party by 3.4 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of