THE NETHERLANDS: After a day of low-key voting, the mood in the Netherlands No camp was jubilant last evening, writes Isabel Conway in The Hague
With a ban on canvassing on the day of voting, yesterday's first Dutch referendum in over 200 years was carried out in a sombre mood.
As people patiently queued to enter one of the portable electronic voting booths set up inside schools and other buildings there was despair among those who were voting Yes.
A senior member of the Salvation Army, who declined to be named as a Yes voter because "we are apolitical", said his reasons for supporting the constitution were historical.
"I can't understand why our country is so negative all of a sudden about Europe," said the elderly officer.
"We are being inconsistent. People are frightened but I am afraid we will become polarised now. I remember the last war and how the Nazis tore the stripes off our uniforms and forbade us from meeting. We have a chance of lasting peace in Europe now - let's take it."
The mood in the No camp was jubilant. Former government minister Hilbrand Nawijn of the LPF, the party set up by murdered populist politician Pim Fortuyn, was disparaging of the Yes camp: "They are sick as parrots."
The reality, he added, was a scenario where more than 80 per cent of Dutch politicians were in favour of a constitution that most of the population rejected.
"Tomorrow in the parliament we will ask the cabinet to explain itself and why the political establishment has alienated itself so much from the people of the Netherlands."
Well-known Dutch political pundit and publicist Mathijs Spits added: "There could be a vote of no confidence in the government, but I very much doubt it; damage limitation will take over but it will send an important lesson; people are not sheep in this country and they resent being told what to think and what to do."
As the day wore on it became obvious that the turnout was going to be higher than expected, mainstream political parties tried to stay faintly upbeat.
However, asked for his predictions last evening shortly before the polling stations shut, the speaker of the Dutch parliament, Frans Weisglas of the centre-right VVD party, declared: "I am sick of being interviewed by you people, no more interviews."
There seemed to be few spoilt votes.
"Thankfully we have had no spoilt votes this time as people have only two buttons to hit, unlike parliamentary elections when there are dozens of names and numbers and people get completely confused," said an official at Utrecht's Overvecht Basis school. The electronic voting system, used for years here, was modified to a simple board with two buttons with a little screen above and a red light pushed to confirm the correct vote cast.
The referendum required a majority vote of parliament to change the law so that it could take place.
At the Salvation Army headquarters on the Prinsegracht, not far from the parliament building in the Hague, the polling station had been set up in a church because the local school was no longer open.
For one voter it was the location rather than the topic of the referendum that was a point of irritation.
"I refuse to vote in God's house," said an outraged citizen, tearing his polling card into pieces. "It's a disgrace to bring politics in here."