JAN PETER Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister for the past eight years, was the major loser as the counting of votes in the Dutch general election got under way last night with the electorate delivering a crushing rejection of his Christian Democrats.
A close former supporter of US ex-president George Bush and a backer of the invasion of Iraq, Mr Balkenende had been prime minister since 2002, leading three cabinets and two caretaker cabinets.
Although none of his coalitions completed their four-year terms, he campaigned relentlessly again saying that his programme of government, cut short when coalition partners the Labour Party, pulled out in March because it did not support keeping Dutch soldiers longer in Afghanistan, was sound.
But the voters thought differently and his ratings in the polls had already plummeted in the run-up to the election.
Last night he was preparing to deliver a resignation speech as party leader as the Christian Democrats saw their support halve.
A turnout of 74 per cent is likely to have included a large number of voters who remained undecided up to the last minute.
A cliffhanger result had been predicted in the final hours and exit polls showed the right-wing Liberals, the VVD, and the Labour Party neck and neck with 31 seats each. As the night wore on there was no more than one or two seats between them.
The Labour Party leader, Job Cohen, who had been declared weak in TV debates, confounded the pundits with his quiet charm and strong statements on integration and support for the less well off and those most vulnerable to cutbacks.
He had clearly appealed to voters, catching up with his much younger rival, Mark Rutte of the Liberals, who had strong pro-business credentials and who proposed drastic measures to repair the economy.
In the end the bread and butter issues turned this into a traditional left-right clash from which both the VVD and Labour benefited.
The issue of personalities and who would make the best next prime minister appeared to have been the real race and one that remains to be fought out as votes continue to be counted.
For the first time in years in general elections voting reverted to the old fashioned ‘ red pencil’ – voting computers have been abandoned because of inaccuracy and privacy fears.
Early results showed strong gains also for right- wing populist Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party campaigned on a anti-immigration platform and looked like increasing its nine seats to as many as 23.