thu 04 mar 2010 16:57:38 — witte de withstraat
i voted for the first time in amsterdam
yesterday i voted in the gemeenteraadsverkiezingen. it's the first time i voted in this country. it was simple and quick, jk and i just had to go over the bridge and around the corner to a school on the balboaplein.
there were two simultaneous elections, one for amsterdam and one for our district. i voted for nelly frijda of red amsterdam [save amsterdam] for the city, but for the district there was no red amsterdam candidate, so i voted for the socialists. i could just as well have voted pvda or d66, but i figured those guys would get in anyway, i wanted to stick with the underdogs.
it turns out red amsterdam gets one seat in the gemeenteraad. parool describes them as "lightly shattered", but i think getting one seat is okay. the fact that d66 won more seats and pvda lost some, doesn't bother me at all, because both of them are better than if pvv or trots had won big.
the parool article points out that nelly really doesn't want to have to go sit in the gemeenteraad, she's afraid that the "preference votes" will choose her over the lijsttrekker, even though she was number two. i would have voted for lubbers, the real loudmouth, but i didn't see him on the list.